Printable Lined Paper

Print lined paper in wide, college or narrow ruling, plus three line handwriting paper. A4 or Letter, optional margin and name line, drawn in mm so it prints true to size.


Line spacing 7.10 mm, 36 writing lines. Print at 100 percent scale for true size.

Wide, college and narrow ruled

The three standard rulings differ only in how far apart the lines sit. Wide ruled, also called legal ruled, spaces lines 8.7 mm apart and is what younger children use, because bigger letters are easier to form. College ruled tightens that to 7.1 mm, fitting roughly six more lines on a page, and is the default from secondary school onwards. Narrow ruled goes down to 6.35 mm for the densest notes. On A4 portrait that works out at about 30, 36 and 41 lines respectively.

Why handwriting paper has three lines

Handwriting practice paper gives each line of writing a baseline to sit on, a dashed midline showing where lowercase letters stop, and a top line for capitals and tall letters like l and h. The dashes matter: they mark the x-height, which is what teaches a child that a reaches the middle while b reaches the top. Descenders in g, j and p drop below the baseline into the gap. Without the midline, letter proportions drift and handwriting stays uneven.

Printing at true size

The sheet is drawn in millimetres and printed as vector, so the spacing on paper matches the spacing on screen exactly, provided you print at 100 percent. In the print dialog, turn off fit to page or shrink oversized pages, both of which quietly scale the sheet down by a few percent and throw the measurement out. Choosing the paper size here that matches the paper in the tray avoids the problem entirely.

Worth knowing

  • Print at 100 percent, not fit to page, or the ruling will not be the size it claims.
  • Grey lines photocopy more cleanly than blue and use less ink.
  • For left handed writers, turn the margin rule off. A rule on the left gets in the way rather than helping.
  • Custom spacing accepts anything from 4 to 30 mm, which covers everything from dense notes to early years writing.
  • Nothing is stored. The sheet is drawn on our server and discarded as soon as it is sent.

Frequently asked questions

Only the line spacing. Wide ruled sits at 8.7 mm between lines, college ruled at 7.1 mm. That gap of about 1.6 mm adds roughly six extra lines to a page, which is why college ruled is standard for older students taking longer notes and wide ruled suits younger children still forming large letters.

On A4 portrait this tool produces about 30 lines wide ruled, 36 college ruled and 41 narrow ruled, allowing for sensible top and bottom margins. The exact count appears under the options every time you change a setting, so you never have to guess.

Choose the paper size that matches what is in your printer, then in the print dialog set scale to 100 percent and switch off fit to page. The sheet is vector artwork measured in millimetres, so at 100 percent the spacing on paper is exactly what is shown here.

It goes by several names: handwriting paper, primary ruled, three line paper or dotted midline paper. Whatever the label, the structure is the same: a solid baseline, a dashed line through the middle marking the x-height, and a top line for capitals and tall letters.

Yes. Pick custom and enter any value between 4 and 30 millimetres. Below about 6 mm the writing gets cramped for most adults, and above 15 mm you are into early years territory, so the range covers everything from dense revision notes to a five year old learning letters.

It depends who is writing. The vertical rule marks where each line starts and gives teachers somewhere to mark, which is useful for schoolwork. For left handed writers it often just gets in the way, and for plain note taking many people prefer the extra width. Turn it off with the switch.

Either, and you choose. A4 is 210 by 297 mm and standard nearly everywhere outside North America. Letter is 8.5 by 11 inches, which is 215.9 by 279.4 mm, being slightly wider and shorter. Pick whichever matches the paper in your printer.

Yes. Set the copy count in your printer dialog rather than here, which is faster and avoids sending the same page repeatedly. The sheet is designed so a stack of identical copies is exactly what you want for a class or a notebook refill.

How do you print lined paper?

Pick a ruling, then print at 100 percent scale. This tool draws wide (8.7 mm), college (7.1 mm), narrow (6.35 mm) and three line handwriting paper, on A4 or Letter, with optional margin rule and name and date line. Everything is measured in millimetres so it prints at true size.