Free Printable Paper — Lined, Graph, Dot Grid and Music Paper (PDF)

Worked example

Leave "Lined" selected. "Spacing" starts on "College ruled", "Paper size" on "A4", "Orientation" on "Portrait", and "Margin line" is ticked. The preview shows an A4 sheet with 38 rules 7.1 mm apart and a red margin line 37 mm from the left edge. Tick "Space for a title" and a 20 mm blank band is left at the top, so 35 rules remain. Now press "Graph", "Letter" and "Landscape". "Spacing" moves to "5 mm", and the preview shows a Letter sheet on its side with 5 mm squares and a heavier line every fifth square. Leave "Pages" at 5 and press "Download PDF". The button reads "Making the PDF…", then a line starting "Saved (" gives the size. The file is graph-paper-letter-landscape.pdf, with five identical pages.

Which settings to use, and the limits

• Choose the paper first, because it decides the spacing choices. The "Paper" buttons are "Lined", "Graph", "Dot grid", "Isometric", "Handwriting", "Music staff" and "Cornell notes", and a line under them describes the one you chose. Changing the paper resets "Spacing" to its first button, except "Lined", which starts on "College ruled". "Lined" offers "Wide ruled" (8.7 mm), "College ruled" (7.1 mm), "Narrow ruled" (6.35 mm), "10 mm" and "8 mm". "Cornell notes" offers "Wide ruled", "College ruled" and "8 mm". The spacings are a fixed list, and you cannot type your own.
• Pick a grid for graph, dot or isometric paper. "Graph" offers 5 mm, ¼ in, 1 cm, 2 mm, ⅙ in and 1 in, with a heavier line every fifth square. "Dot grid" offers 5 mm, ¼ in and 1 cm, with a dot at every grid point. "Isometric" is a triangle grid with sides of 5, 8 or 10 mm. All three keep an 8 mm margin. Graph and dot paper centre whole squares inside it, so spare space is shared between opposite sides. On A4 portrait at 5 mm, graph paper has 38 × 56 squares and dot grid has 39 × 57 dots.
• Set the letter or staff height for handwriting and music paper. For "Handwriting" the label reads "Letter height", with 5, 7, 10 and 14 mm. Each group has a top line, a dashed middle line and a baseline. The number is the gap from the top line to the middle line, and again to the baseline. A gap of the same size separates groups, so 10 mm fits 9 groups on A4 portrait and 5 mm fits 18. For "Music staff" the label reads "Staff height", with 7, 8 and 10 mm. Each staff has five lines and a short bar at each end, with no clef, and A4 portrait holds 17, 15 or 12 staves.
• Use Cornell notes for study sheets. "Cornell notes" always has a 20 mm title band across the top, a cue column on the left about 30% of the width between the margins, and a summary box at the bottom that is 20% of the height between them. Note lines run only in the right-hand part, at the spacing you chose. The frame lines are red, and the note lines use your "Line colour". "Space for a title" is not offered for this paper because the band is always there.
• Check the paper size, orientation and page count. "Paper size" offers "A4" (210 × 297 mm), "Letter" (215.9 × 279.4 mm), "A5" (148 × 210 mm) and "Legal" (215.9 × 355.6 mm), and "Orientation" turns the sheet to "Portrait" or "Landscape". It starts on A4. "Pages" takes 1 to 200, starting at 5, and every page is the same. The sheet is stored once and reused for each page, so the file stays small. The file is named like lined-paper-a4.pdf, or graph-paper-letter-landscape.pdf for a landscape sheet.
• Print at actual size, and choose the line colour. The page says: "Print at "Actual size" (100 %), not "Fit to page", to keep the exact spacing." The PDF holds real lines and dots, not a picture, so it stays sharp at any printer resolution. Lines stop 12 mm from the page edge, or 8 mm on graph, dot and isometric paper. "Line colour" has five swatches (pale blue, grey, dark grey, pale green and black) and a "Custom line colour" picker. Graph paper draws its thin lines in a lighter tint of your colour, and isometric paper uses that tint for every line. Margin and Cornell frame lines stay red.

Common problems and how to fix them

It says "The PDF could not be made. Try fewer pages."

The PDF is built in your browser by a drawing library that loads when you press "Download PDF". The message appears if loading or building fails, and the page does not say which step. A lost connection while the library loads can cause it, and so can a device that runs out of memory. Lower "Pages" and press the button again; if it still fails, reload the page and try once more.

The lines print too small, or the spacing is not what I chose.

The PDF is drawn in millimetres, so it is exact only when printed at its own size. A print dialog set to "Fit to page" scales it. Choose "Actual size" (100 %), and choose the paper size that is in your printer: A4 and Letter are not the same shape. After printing, measure one 5 mm square on graph paper to check.

The preview changed from A4 to Letter by itself.

The tool starts on A4. The first time you change any setting, it switches to Letter if your browser language ends in -US, -CA, -MX or -PH, such as en-US. Pressing "A4" yourself keeps A4, because a size you pick is never changed. The preview and the PDF always use whichever size is highlighted under "Paper size".

I cannot find "Margin line" or "Space for a title".

Each box is shown only where it makes sense. "Margin line" appears for "Lined" only. "Space for a title" appears for "Lined", "Handwriting" and "Music staff". "Cornell notes" has its title band built in, and graph, dot and isometric paper have neither option. Press "Lined" to get both boxes.

The "Pages" box will not take my number.

The box keeps its value between 1 and 200. A bigger number becomes 200, and 0, a negative number or an empty box becomes 1. Clearing the box puts 1 back at once, so select the number and type over it instead of deleting it first. For more than 200 sheets, make the PDF twice.

How it compares

This tool makes blank printable paper: seven kinds, four paper sizes and a fixed list of spacings, as a PDF made of real lines. Every page is the same. You cannot type your own spacing, add text, a logo or page numbers, add punch-hole marks, or mix kinds in one file. A word processor or spreadsheet can do those things, but you set up the grid yourself. A ready-made pad or a template from a stationery site may suit you better if you need a particular layout. In exchange, the sizes are set in millimetres, nothing needs installing, and the PDF is made in your browser.