Graph Paper
Created for free at puzzleandprint.com
5 mm squares
Or take one that is already made
Ruled sheets at the standard sizes, each one a single page. The measurement is printed at the foot, so a reprint can be checked against a ruler.
1/4 inch graph paper, full page6.35 mm between rules, a quarter inch from the sidesDownload PDF ↓
5 mm graph paper5 mm between rulesDownload PDF ↓
1 cm graph paper10 mm between rulesDownload PDF ↓
1/4 inch graph paper6.35 mm between rulesDownload PDF ↓
1/5 inch graph paper5.08 mm between rulesDownload PDF ↓
1/2 inch graph paper12.7 mm between rulesDownload PDF ↓
1 inch graph paper25.4 mm between rulesDownload PDF ↓
1/8 inch graph paper3.18 mm between rulesDownload PDF ↓Every sheet here is free to print as often as you like. If one saved you time, the tip jar is on Ko-fi.
Graph paper is the one stationery item that always runs out mid-homework, and the one most likely to be wrong when you buy it, the pad in the drawer is 1 cm and the notebook is 5 mm, and a graph drawn on the wrong one has to be redrawn.
The seven spacings here cover what school and work actually ask for, from an eighth of an inch up to a full inch. The big one is the sheet for younger children, who need room to write a digit inside a square, and the eighth inch suits drafting, floor plans and fine diagrams. Metric sizes are exactly 5 mm and 1 cm. Imperial ones are exact too: quarter-inch paper is 6.35 mm, not 6 mm, and across a page that difference is visible against a ruler.
One more sheet, the one shown first, repeats the quarter inch as a full page. The other seven leave at least 17 mm of blank paper at each side; this one runs its grid to a quarter inch from the sides of the paper, about as close as most home printers will print, so it holds 32 squares across and 41 down where the standard quarter inch sheet holds 28 by 38. It is made for US Letter: A4 is 5.9 mm narrower, which leaves the grid about 3.4 mm from each side edge at best, closer than many printers reach.
On the five sheets with small squares a slightly heavier rule falls every few squares, so a count can be made at a glance rather than measured, while the three larger sheets print every rule alike. The rules themselves are printed light gray rather than black, graph paper is a background for someone else's work, and a grid at full black competes with the pencil on top of it and drinks ink besides.
Print one or fifty, with no sign-up and no watermark. The spacing is printed small beneath each grid, as "6.35 mm" on both quarter inch sheets, so a reprint can be matched to a ruler. The maker on this page offers the same seven spacings with the standard margin, and can print the rules faint, normal or strong or switch the ruling to dots, lines, isometric, coordinate plane or hexagons.
How many squares are on a sheet of 5 mm graph paper
A sheet of 5 mm graph paper here has 1,728 squares, 36 across and 48 down, in a grid exactly 18 cm wide and 24 cm tall. The eighth inch sheet holds the most, 4,332 squares (57 by 76), and the rest hold fewer as the squares grow: 1,680 on the fifth inch sheet (35 by 48), 1,312 on the full page quarter inch (32 by 41), 1,064 on the standard quarter inch (28 by 38), 432 on the 1 cm (18 by 24), 266 on the half inch (14 by 19) and 63 on the one inch, which is seven squares across and nine down. The 1 cm grid is also exactly 18 cm by 24 cm, so the two metric sheets cover the same patch of paper at two scales.
Those outside measurements are the quickest way to prove a print came out at full size. Both metric grids are exactly 18 cm wide, the quarter, fifth, half and one inch grids exactly seven inches, the eighth inch grid seven and an eighth, and the full page grid eight, so a ruler laid along the top edge from one corner to the other should read one of those figures. If the 1 cm grid reads 17.4 cm, or a seven inch grid six and three quarter inches, the printer has scaled the page and every square is short by the same proportion. The grid is centered on the paper with the spare space split evenly at both sides, so there is never a sliver of a square along one edge to throw the measurement off.
Which graph paper size to use for a floor plan or an area lesson
For a floor plan, the quarter inch graph paper matches the usual imperial scale of a quarter inch to the foot, and the 1 cm sheet matches the metric scale of 1:100, one square to the meter. At those scales the quarter inch sheet covers a plan 28 feet by 38 feet, with its heavier lines marking off every four feet, and the 1 cm sheet covers 18 meters by 24. A whole house is often drawn smaller, at an eighth of an inch to the foot, and at that scale the eighth inch sheet covers 57 feet by 76 with a heavier line every eight feet. A single room drawn at 1:50 on the 1 cm sheet gets two squares to the meter, which leaves space for doors, windows and furniture, and anything up to 9 meters by 12 still fits on the page.
For area, the 1 cm sheet is the one where each square is exactly one square centimeter, so a rectangle drawn 6 squares by 4 can be checked by counting its 24 squares before anyone multiplies. The one inch sheet does the same job in square inches, with only 63 squares on the page and plenty of room to number each one. The 1 cm sheet is also the size for setting out column addition and subtraction with one digit to a square, which keeps ones under ones and tens under tens. The 5 mm squares are small for a young child's digits and suit older students drawing graphs.
Common questions
Will it print at the right size?
Yes, as long as the print dialog is set to 100% or "Actual size", because "Fit to page" shrinks the grid and every square in it by the same proportion. The sheets are US Letter, and on all but the full page sheet the grid is at least 17 mm inside each side edge, so printed at 100% on A4 paper, which is 5.9 mm narrower and taller, the whole grid still lands on the page. The full page grid is 8 inches wide, a quarter inch inside each side of Letter, which on A4 leaves it about 3.4 mm from each edge at best, so for A4 print the standard quarter inch sheet.
Which spacing do I actually need?
Match the paper the work is already on, and if that is a notebook, measure ten of its squares: 3.18 cm means eighth inch, 5 cm means 5 mm, 6.35 cm means quarter inch and 10 cm means 1 cm. The easy pair to confuse is 5 mm and fifth inch, whose squares differ by 0.08 mm each, but across the 35 squares of the fifth inch sheet that gap grows to 2.8 mm.
Why do only some of the graph paper sheets have darker lines?
Darker lines are printed only on the five sheets with small squares: every fifth line on the 5 mm and fifth inch sheets, every fourth on both quarter inch sheets and every eighth on the eighth inch. On the four imperial sheets that puts a darker line exactly every inch, and on the 5 mm sheet every 2.5 cm. The 1 cm, half inch and one inch sheets have none, because squares that size are easy to count without help.
Want to know when new printables go up?
New printables when they go up, mostly seasonal, a few times a year.