How it works

How a sheet is drawn

Each maker turns your settings into an SVG drawing with width and height in millimetres and a matching viewBox, so one unit in the drawing is one millimetre on paper. The page also sets the print page size (@page) to the paper you chose with no margins. A browser printing at 100% therefore lays the drawing on the paper exactly. “Fit to page” would scale it, which is why the sheets ask you not to use it.

The PNG download renders the same drawing at 300 dots per inch: an A4 sheet is 2,480 × 3,508 pixels. The SVG download is the drawing itself. Nothing you type is sent anywhere; the drawing is made on your device.

Paper sizes

• A4: 210 × 297 mm (8.27 × 11.69 in)
• US Letter: 215.9 × 279.4 mm (8.50 × 11.00 in)
• US Legal: 215.9 × 355.6 mm (8.50 × 14.00 in)
• A5: 148 × 210 mm (5.83 × 8.27 in)
• A3: 297 × 420 mm (11.69 × 16.54 in)
• Tabloid: 279.4 × 431.8 mm (11.00 × 17.00 in)

One inch is exactly 25.4 mm. Landscape swaps the width and height.

Grids

Squares: squares across = whole part of (page width − 2 × margin) ÷ square size, and likewise down; the grid is then centred. Example: 5 mm squares on A4 with a 10 mm margin give 38 × 55 squares. Heavy lines every N squares are drawn at 2.2 times the light line weight. Dots sit at every grid corner, so N squares give N + 1 dots.

Isometric: vertical lines plus lines at +30° and −30°, each set spaced by the chosen distance (the triangle height); the triangle side is that distance ÷ cos 30°. Polar: rings at equal radii and a line every chosen number of degrees, 0° to the right and 90° straight up. Hexagons: a hexagon of side a is 2a across its points and a√3 across its flats.

Lined paper

• Wide ruled (11/32 in, 8.7 mm): 8.7 mm between lines
• College ruled (9/32 in, 7.1 mm): 7.1 mm between lines
• Narrow ruled (1/4 in, 6.35 mm): 6.35 mm between lines
• Seyès / French ruling (8 mm): 8 mm between lines

Lines = whole part of (page height − top margin − 12 mm) ÷ spacing, plus one. Engineering paper is 5 squares per inch (5.08 mm) with 0.75 inch margins and a 0.9 inch header. Handwriting rows have a top, a dashed middle and a base line. Staff paper is five lines per staff; printed music spaces them about 1.75 mm.

The unit circle

The point at angle θ is (cos θ, sin θ). The exact values come from the 30-60-90 triangle (sides 1, √3, 2) and the 45-45-90 triangle (sides 1, 1, √2), reflected into each quadrant. Radians = degrees × π ÷ 180.

Number charts

Multiplication chart: cell (row r, column c) = r × c; the diagonal holds the squares. Times tables: k × n for k = 1 up to the chosen limit. Hundreds chart: cell = start + 10 × row + column. Number line: ticks = (end − start) ÷ step + 1, labels computed exactly so 0.1 + 0.2 reads 0.3. Coordinate plane: four quadrants run −range to +range each way; the first quadrant runs 0 to range. Fraction wall: row d is one bar in d equal parts; a/b = c/d exactly when a × d = b × c; decimals are shown to three places with a trailing “…” when the digits repeat.

The ruler and the print check

Millimetre marks sit at whole millimetres and sixteenth-inch marks at multiples of 1.5875 mm. The print check is a dashed box 85.60 × 53.98 mm with 3.18 mm corners, the ISO/IEC 7810 ID-1 size of every payment card: a card that fits it proves the print is at true size.

What this leaves out

Printers differ. Most cannot print the outer 4 to 6 mm of a page, so sheets keep a margin; borderless printing may still clip. Paper can be a fraction of a millimetre off its nominal size and absorbs a little ink, which is invisible on a grid but matters if you measure a printed ruler against a steel one: expect agreement within about half a millimetre over 15 cm. For anything that must be exact, check the printed sheet against a ruler you trust.