Grid Maker: Put a Grid on Any Photo

Upload a JPG, PNG, or WEBP image, set the target width and height, then choose Crop or Padding. Crop fills the finished drawing proportion and may remove image edges; Padding keeps the entire photo and adds blank space where needed. Choose a physical cell size or a row-and-column count, then review line colour, opacity, labels, and borders in the local browser preview before exporting.

Enter the real dimensions of the intended paper, board, or canvas and export the True Scale PDF. Open that file in a PDF reader and choose Actual size or 100% in the print dialog. Disable Fit to page, Shrink oversized pages, and custom scaling because each option changes the physical grid size. Print one test page and measure the included ruler before assembling a larger tiled template.

The calibration ruler turns print scale into something you can physically verify. Measure it with a reliable ruler after printing. If the marked distance is exactly 100 mm, the PDF reader and printer preserved the intended scale. If it is shorter or longer, the drawing grid is also scaled incorrectly. Correct the print settings and repeat the test instead of compensating by eye while transferring the image.

Yes. Enter the real canvas width and height, then choose a cell size that divides both dimensions cleanly. TrueScale Grid can recommend an exact physical size and warns when a chosen row-and-column combination would create rectangles. Square cells make one reference square correspond predictably to one canvas square. Rectangular cells remain available when they are intentional, but the app does not silently present them as squares.

No image upload is used by the current tool. Image decoding, preview rendering, optional project storage, and PDF or PNG generation happen locally in your browser. The app does not send the original filename, pixels, thumbnail, EXIF data, hash, base64 data, or blob URL to an application server. If you save a project, its image blob remains in this browser until you use Clear project or remove the browser data.

Use True Scale PDF when the finished drawing must print at known physical dimensions. The PDF records the target plane in real units, tiles large work across sheets, and includes print-verification marks. Use PNG when you need a raster reference with exact pixel dimensions for a screen, slide, or another graphics app. PNG DPI controls the exported pixel count, but another app or printer can still rescale the image, so it is not the calibrated print workflow.

The PDF divides the requested drawing plane across multiple paper tiles without shrinking it to one page. Print every sheet with the same Actual size or 100% setting, keep the page order, and use the tile labels to arrange the layout. Trim or overlap edges consistently, then measure the calibration ruler before transferring the drawing. Never rescale an individual sheet to force alignment; a mismatch points to print settings or assembly that should be corrected.

Use blank printable grid paper when you only need empty squares for notes, charts, or freehand practice. Use TrueScale Grid when the reference photo, final drawing proportion, square count, labels, and physical output size need to stay connected. The export places the adjustable grid over the image rather than producing a generic blank worksheet. For measured transfers, the photo grid and true-size PDF provide context that ordinary grid paper does not include.