Printable College Ruled Paper

College ruling, measured

College ruled paper has its lines 9/32 inch apart, about 7.1 mm. Pacon, one of the big US makers of school paper, files its filler and composition paper under “9/32” Ruled (College)” and “3/8” Ruled (Wide)”, and Mead describes college ruling as “ideal for the older student who prefers more lines per page”. On a US Letter sheet the difference adds up: this page fits 34 college ruled lines, while the 11/32 in wide ruling of the lined paper generator fits 28.

What this page sets up

The ruling is set to College ruled. Everything else keeps the choices you made before, or starts from the usual notebook layout:

• A red margin line 1¼ in from the left edge (28 mm when the page opens on A4). Type another distance, or untick it for a sheet without a margin.
• A header line about 1 inch below the top edge, in the margin color, with room above it for a title. Tick Name and date labels to print both on it.
• Light blue lines at Regular weight. If your printer makes them faint, choose Dark or a darker color.
• US Letter or A4, picked from your browser’s region. The table below lists the lines per page on each paper size.

Using it well

Check the scale before you print a stack. Measure from one line to the eighth line below it. At 100% scale that distance is exactly 2¼ in (57 mm), because 8 × 9/32 in = 72/32 in. If it comes out shorter, the printer shrank the page to fit; switch its scaling to Actual size.

Taking lecture notes. The margin is the place for keywords and questions to review later, and the header line for the date and topic, so every page can be filed on its own.

Younger writers. If a child’s letters are still taller than the gaps, go back to wide ruled paper, or to the 3rd grade writing paper with its dashed midline. For binder paper with punch guides, use the loose-leaf paper page; for a grid instead of lines, the graph paper generator.

Lines per page at 9/32 in (7.1 mm) spacing

Counted by the generator with this page’s settings: the first line about 1 inch below the top edge (the header line) and a ½-inch bottom margin. Lines that don’t fit whole are left off, and the summary above the preview updates as you change the settings.