10 squares per inch: the classic green-tint engineering pad layout in printable form.

Free printable engineering paper. 10 squares per inch with bolder lines every half-inch, the classic US engineering pad.

Engineering Paper | Free Printable 10 Squares Per Inch PDF

Engineering Paper

Use the bold accent grid as the structure of your drawing. Block out the overall sketch using the 1/2 inch cells, then draft details using the fine 1/10 inch ruling within them. This 'major then minor' approach is how professional draftsmen used the paper for decades.

Plan the layout at half-inch scale

The 0.1 inch pitch lines up with perfboard, breadboard, and most thru-hole components (DIPs, headers, terminal blocks). Sketch your circuit layout cell-for-hole and the transfer to physical board is one-to-one.

Match electronics work to the grid

When plotting numerical data, put each data label on the half-inch accent line and use the fine cells between for sub-divisions. The eye reads accents as natural tick marks without needing extra annotation.

Use accent lines as data anchors

0.1 inch cells are too small to write digits inside. Use the half-inch accent rows as your text baselines instead. Write across the fine cells with the accent providing top/bottom alignment, the way you would on lined paper.