Add a drawing grid to a photo
A grid in the shape of your canvas, with squares of a real size (say 5 cm), so the photo and the canvas match square for square. Print it, and the empty grid, at true size. The photo never leaves this device.
Open a photo to put the grid on it.
Tap a square to enlarge it. Drag the picture to move the crop.
A1
Canvas or paper you will draw on
Grid
Lines and tone
Auto-contrast draws each piece of line dark over light parts of the photo and light over dark parts.
Print and download
Print the PDF at 100% (Actual size), not “Fit to page”. Each page has a 5 cm line to check with a ruler.
Privacy: your photo is gridded inside this browser and is never uploaded. The page sends an anonymous page-view count and two fixed event names (open, print), never a file name, a size or a picture. The PNG is redrawn from scratch, so the photo's EXIF (camera, date, GPS) is not in it.
How to grid a photo for drawing
- Open the photo. Tap Choose a photo, take one, drop a file or paste it.
- Pick your canvas. A4, A3, 8 × 10 in, 30 × 40 cm, 50 × 70 cm or a custom size. The photo is cropped to the canvas shape, centred; drag it (or use Crop position) to keep the part you want, or choose Fit whole to add white margins instead.
- Pick the squares. By size on the canvas (5 cm is a common start for 30 × 40 cm) or by number across. The line above the picture gives both sizes: on the canvas and on the photo in pixels.
- Make it easy to read. Labels, diagonals or a finer sub-grid for detailed squares, auto-contrast lines so they show on dark and light areas, and a 3- or 5-value study to see the shapes of light and shadow.
- Draw square by square. On a phone, tap a square to see it big with its label and step through with Next. Or print the true-size PDF: the gridded photo and the matching empty grid, or rule the same grid lightly onto your canvas with a pencil.
What it cannot do
- It does not draw for you. It gives you the grid and the reference; the copying, square by square, is yours.
- A printer set to “Fit to page” changes the size. Print at 100% (Actual size). Every page has a 5 cm check line; if it is not 5 cm on paper, the squares are not true size either.
- The photo is not enhanced. No sharpening, no upscaling, no colour fixing. A small or blurry photo gives large blurry squares: 150 px a square is plenty, 20 px is not much to copy from.
- Large prints come in pieces. Anything over one sheet is tiled on A4 or Letter with 10 mm overlap and alignment crosses for taping together; it does not print to a poster printer's roll in one piece.
- Settings are not saved. Close the tab and the photo and the grid are gone; download first.
Worked example: 5 cm squares on a 30 × 40 cm canvas
A landscape photo 1200 × 900 pixels on a 40 × 30 cm canvas (landscape) with 5 cm squares gives 8 columns (A to H) and 6 rows (1 to 6). Each square is 150 × 150 pixels on the photo and 5 × 5 cm on the canvas, so everything in square B2 of the photo goes into square B2 of the canvas, 1 pixel to 1/3 mm. Turn the same canvas to portrait (30 × 40 cm) and the photo is cropped to 3:4: a 675 × 900 pixel window, centred, which you can move.
| Canvas | Squares | Grid | On A4 paper |
|---|---|---|---|
| A4 (21 × 29.7 cm) | 3 cm | 7 × 10, last row 2.7 cm | 2 pages each (A4 minus margins is smaller than A4) |
| 30 × 40 cm | 5 cm | 6 × 8 | 4 pages each |
| 50 × 70 cm | 5 cm | 10 × 14 | 9 pages each |
| Battle map, 20 squares across | 1 in | 20 × 15 (4:3 map) | 6 Letter pages |
Paper sizes: A4 210 × 297 mm, A3 297 × 420 mm (ISO 216), Letter 8.5 × 11 in (Paper size, read 18 Oct 2026). 1 in = 25.4 mm and a PDF point is 1/72 in, so 5 cm is 141.73 pt and a 1 in square is 72 pt (Point (typography), read 18 Oct 2026).
Questions
How do I add a grid to an image for drawing?
Open the photo, choose the canvas or paper you will draw on, and choose the square size on that canvas, for example 5 cm. The photo is cropped to the canvas shape and the grid is drawn over it, with each square's size on the photo in pixels shown alongside. Print the gridded photo and the matching empty grid, or lightly draw the same grid on your canvas, and copy one square at a time.
Can I make a grid with measurements, like 5 cm squares on a 30 × 40 cm canvas?
Yes. That is what this tool is built around. Pick 30 × 40 cm and 5 cm squares and you get 6 × 8 squares in the canvas's own proportions; the page also tells you how big each square is on the photo. If the canvas is not a whole number of squares, the last row or column is shorter and the page says by how much.
Does it work on iPhone and Android without an app?
Yes. It runs in the phone's browser. Tap a square to see it enlarged with its label (B2, C2 and so on) and step through the squares with the next and previous buttons while you draw. Nothing is installed and the photo stays on the phone.
How do I print a D&D battle map with 1-inch squares?
Choose Battle map (1 in), say how many squares the map is across, and print the PDF at 100%. Each square prints at 1 inch (25.4 mm); a map larger than one sheet is split over A4 or Letter pages with overlap and alignment crosses so you can tape them together. Measure the 5 cm check line on each page to be sure the printer did not shrink it.
Why did my printed grid come out the wrong size?
The print dialog was set to “Fit to page” or “Shrink to fit”. Set the scale to 100% or “Actual size” and print again. Every page carries a 5 cm check line; if it measures 5 cm with a ruler, the squares are true size.
Is this the right tool for a pixel-art grid?
Only if you want a grid of a real size over a photo. For a grid where each square is one pixel of the art, turn the photo into pixel art first with Image to Pixel Art, which shows its own pixel grid.