Printable Tracing Grid (Free PDF)
An enlargement grid with numbered columns and lettered rows, for copying a picture one square at a time.
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The grid method is the oldest reliable way to copy or scale a picture: divide the reference into squares, divide your paper into the same number of squares, then draw only what falls inside one square at a time. Because each square is a small, simple shape, proportions come out right even when the whole drawing is beyond you. This sheet is the drawing half of that method, ready to print.
Choose how many squares run across the page. Eight gives large squares, 0.89 inch on US Letter in an 8 by 10 grid, for quick enlargements and younger artists. Twelve gives a 12 by 16 grid of 0.59 inch squares, the usual working choice. Sixteen gives a 16 by 21 grid of 0.44 inch squares for detailed portraits and anything with fine features. Every square is a true square, so nothing stretches.
Columns are numbered along the top and rows are lettered down the left, so every square has a reference such as C7 and you can keep your place in a complicated drawing. Rule the same number of squares over your reference photo — or lay a printed grid over it in a photo app — and work square by square. The lines print light grey so they disappear under pencil, and the sheet is blank otherwise, with nothing to fill in on screen.
