1 cm graph paper, printable A4 sheet

What this sheet is

Squared paper ruled at 10 mm on A4. One centimetre, centre to centre, gives 19 columns and 27 rows across a sheet of 210 by 297 millimetres: 513 squares, drawn with 48 ruled lines. It is the coarser of the two metric squared rulings drawn here.

The ruling is centred in the writing area, and centring matters more at this pitch than at a fine one. The fraction of a centimetre that will not fit is a visible piece of paper. Split between the two margins it disappears into the border; pushed to one side it looks like a printing fault.

A square that is also a measurement

At 10 mm the square is not only something to count, it is something to measure with. A line six squares long is six centimetres long, and that can be read off the sheet without a rule and without converting anything. It is the whole argument for a centimetre grid over a finer one: fewer squares, in exchange for squares whose size you already know.

The price is the count. This sheet carries 513 squares against the 2,090 the 5 mm ruling fits on the same paper, so a long run of points will reach the edge sooner. Where the drawing is going to be counted rather than measured, the finer sheet is the better choice.

Printing it at true size

A centimetre grid is only worth having while the centimetre is a centimetre, so the print scale costs more here than on a sheet that is merely counted on. A print dialogue set to Fit to page scales an A4 sheet onto US Letter at 94.1 per cent, and a square reduced to 94.1 per cent of a centimetre is not a centimetre any more. It is also close enough to one that no one catches it by eye.

Set 100 per cent, or Actual size, and then measure. The bar in the foot margin is printed at a stated length and labelled with it so that it can be checked against a rule. This sheet also gives you a second check for nothing: the squares are centimetres, so any rule marked in centimetres can be laid straight across the ruling, and it will either agree with it or it will not.

What else the bench will set

Nothing on this sheet is fixed. The spacing control moves between the metric pitches and the inch ones without leaving the page, so a centimetre grid can be put next to a half-inch grid and compared directly rather than from memory. Paper can be set to A5, A3, US Letter or Legal, the sheet turned to landscape, and the ink to grey, blue or black.

The extras are a red margin rule, name and date lines, a heavier line every fifth, and the measuring bar. At 10 mm the heavy fifth line is a navigation aid rather than a counting one, and it costs nothing to leave it off. Files come out as PDF, PNG or SVG, all of them drawn here in the browser.