Drawing Grid Maker

The grid method is the classic way to copy a picture accurately by hand: you divide the reference and your paper into the same number of squares and draw one square at a time, so proportions take care of themselves. This tool puts a labelled square grid over your reference photo — with optional diagonals and greyscale for judging values — and makes a matching blank grid PDF to print or trace onto your paper. It runs in your browser.

How to use this tool

1. Choose your reference picture.
2. Set the grid: squares across, a square size in pixels, or the square size you will draw at plus your drawing width.
3. Pick the line colour, width and opacity; add diagonals, labels or greyscale if they help.
4. Download the gridded picture and the blank grid, and copy square by square.

Formula

square size = picture width ÷ squares across; rows = ⌈picture height ÷ square size⌉

Squares are always square, so the last row (or column, for a pixel size) may be partial. In centimetre mode, squares across = drawing width ÷ square size. The blank PDF uses the same number of squares, as large as fit on the paper with 10 mm margins, in whichever orientation gives bigger squares, and keeps the picture's proportions.

Example

A 3000 × 4000 px portrait with 6 squares across gets 3000 ÷ 6 = 500 px squares and ⌈4000 ÷ 500⌉ = 8 rows. To draw it 30 cm wide, each square on your paper is 30 ÷ 6 = 5 cm, and the drawing will be 40 cm tall.