With a little creativity, the possibilities for using online graph paper become unlimited. That makes good sense all around - good economic sense and good environmental sense.
So when PDFs made online graph paper a reality, it suddenly made good sense to download a file and print only the sheets you need for a given project. Not to mention that buying 100 sheets of graph paper at a time is probably more paper than most people need - now or in the future (I still have pads of unused graph paper sitting around that I bought five years ago).
Some of the more recent improvements in PDF technology - along with better home printers - have made online graph paper a popular alternative to buying a full pad - and the trip to the local office supply store to find it. This makes graph paper an incredible tool for visualizing objects that may otherwise be too small - or too large - for us to sketch on a standard letter size piece of paper. One square can equal anything - one millimeter, one inch, one foot, one yard, one mile. The evenly divided rows and columns means that you can assign any unit of measure you like to the individual squares on the page. One of the best (and often overlooked) uses for graphing paper is drawing objects in scale. With its perfectly aligned vertical and horizontal lines - we can easily draw by hand an endless variety of geometric shapes - images that can be difficult to sketch on a blank sheet of paper.īy simply counting off squares - up, down, left, and right - graphing paper can help us design and layout woodworking projects, home remodeling plans, craft patterns, and anything else that makes use of symmetrical shapes.
That's where graphing paper comes to the rescue. Not many of us can draw a straight line, much less a square box, triangle, or circle. Better to find out early on your sketching paper if your idea just doesn't look the way you had hoped it would. I've also found that making rough sketches on blank graph paper can quickly bring to light any problems you might have with the overall design. These can be very helpful templates for sketching your project ideas in 3D - giving you birds eye view of what your project might look like when completed.
Some of the more interesting kinds of blank graph paper are the type designed for perspective drawing - with converging lines to a vanishing point located in the upper corner of the page. That saves you money - and avoids wasted paper products.
Downloading a PDF file of blank graph paper templates means you can keep the file on your computer and print only the copies you need for the project at hand. If you're looking for blank graph paper on the Web, you've likely decided that buying large pads of printed graph paper at the local office supply store is kind of waste - considering that any given project will call for no more than a few sheets of paper to get the job done.
How to Use PDF Graph Paper for Designing Wood Projects