Ink Friendly

Generator · Print-true

Printable squared paper, A4, exact to the millimetre

Maths-book squared paper you can measure with a ruler and be right. A4 with 5 mm squares to start — change it to 1 cm, 7 mm, or anything else — generated in your browser as vector geometry in real millimetres, with no watermarks, no sign-ups, and nothing uploaded. Print it or save it as a PDF from the same dialog.

Sheet— Spacing— Grid— Line weight—

How this generator works

The sheet you see is an SVG drawn in physical units: every coordinate is a real millimetre, not a screen pixel. When you change the square size, the page computes how many whole squares fit inside the printable area — the sheet minus your margin — and centres the grid, so you never get sliced partial squares along the edges. The readout reports the geometry it actually produced: sheet size, true spacing in both units, and the exact column-by-row count.

The defaults are the British school sheet rather than the American one. A4 is selected, the squares start at 5 mm, and the margin is 10 mm — a round metric number instead of the 12.7 mm that is really half an inch wearing metric clothes. That is the only real difference between this page and the graph paper generator, which starts from US Letter; both drive the same engine, and either can produce either sheet.

Printing is where most squared-paper downloads quietly fail, because "Fit to page" rescales a fixed PDF and 5 mm squares arrive at 4.7 mm. This page sets the print size to match your chosen sheet exactly and keeps the grid inside the margin, within the mechanical dead zone of essentially every consumer printer, so nothing needs rescaling. Leave the dialog at 100% or "Actual size" and the millimetres on paper match the millimetres on the readout — the methodology page shows how to verify it with a ruler. The honest limits: if the dialog is set to fit or shrink, no generator can save the measurements; line weights below about 0.2 mm render inconsistently on consumer printers, which is why the default is 0.3 mm; and the margin stops at 5 mm rather than pretending borderless printing works everywhere.

Frequently asked questions

What size are the squares on squared paper?
5 mm is the standard for school maths books across the UK and most of Europe, and it is the default here. 1 cm squares are common in primary school and for graph work where the numbers need room — set the spacing to 10. Some exercise books use 7 mm, and 2 mm appears in technical and engineering work. Every one of those is a single entry in the spacing box, and the readout tells you the resulting column-by-row count before you print.
Is squared paper the same as graph paper?
The grid is the same; the words and the conventions differ. "Squared paper" is the usual term in British and Irish schools, where it means A4 with 5 mm or 1 cm squares. "Graph paper" is the more common term in the United States, where the default sheet is US Letter and the classic ruling is quad-ruled at a quarter inch. This page defaults to A4 with 5 mm squares and a metric margin; the graph paper page defaults to Letter. Either page can produce either sheet — pick the one whose defaults you want.
Will the squares really measure 5 mm when printed?
Yes, on one condition: the print dialog's scale must be 100%, sometimes labelled "Actual size", and not "Fit to page", which silently shrinks the sheet to dodge printer margins. The grid is generated in true millimetre units and kept inside a safe margin so nothing is clipped. Put a ruler across the first printout and count ten squares — at 5 mm they span exactly 5 cm.
How do I get an A4 squared paper PDF?
A4 is already selected. Press Print and choose "Save as PDF" as the destination in the dialog. Your browser generates the PDF itself, on your device — this site never creates, stores, or watermarks a file on any server, and there is no account, no email, and no download queue.
Why are the lines light grey by default?
Because squared paper is a background instrument: light grey recedes behind pencil and ink instead of competing with the work on top of it, and it uses far less toner over hundreds of sheets. Blue, green, and red are one click away, and the line-weight control darkens the grid if your printer runs faint.

Related tools