Reading the grid
Three weights of line make 1 mm paper readable: a fine line every millimetre, a medium line every 5 mm and a bold line every centimetre. Count whole centimetres along the bold lines first, then the millimetres after the last bold line. On A4 the grid is 190 × 280 mm; one bold square is 1 cm², and one fine square is 1 mm².
Drawing a graph for a science practical
Exam boards publish the rules they mark graphs by. Cambridge International’s AS & A Level Physics syllabus (9702), for example, expects students to:
- label each axis with the quantity and its unit;
- choose scales so the plotted points cover at least half the grid in both the x and y directions;
- use a false origin where it helps, instead of always starting at zero;
- choose scales that are easy to read, such as 1, 2 or 5 units to a 2 cm square;
- put numbers along each axis at least every 2 cm.
In practice: find the range of each variable and divide it by the number of 2 cm blocks available (9 across and 14 down on A4 in portrait). Round the result up to 1, 2 or 5 times a power of ten: that is how many units each 2 cm block stands for. Then check that the points cover at least half the blocks. If they don’t (it happens when the result is just over 2), turn the page so that variable gets the 14-block side, or use 2 units per centimetre instead. Turn the page to landscape anyway if your x range is the longer one. Plot small, neat points and draw one line of best fit rather than joining the dots.
Scale drawings
With 1 mm squares, metric scales need no conversion: at 1:10 each millimetre is 1 cm, at 1:100 each is 10 cm, and at 1:1000 each is a metre. That makes this paper useful for site sketches, model plans and technical drawing exercises. For house plans at a fixed scale, the floor plan page prints the scale on the sheet. For work in inches, use engineering paper, five squares to the inch.
How this page sets up the sheet
- Engineering.
- 1 mm (0.039 in) squares, 10 per cm; bold line every 10, medium line every 5.
It opens in millimetres wherever you are, because that is how this kind of paper is measured. The paper size follows your browser too: Letter in the US, A4 elsewhere. Everything stays editable. Your own page settings, such as margins, are remembered for next time; the grid itself always opens as set up here. To start from a blank setup, use the graph paper generator.