Free Printable Graph Paper Templates (Word, Excel)

Graph Paper, also known as coordinate, square, or grid paper, is having very fine lines printed on it making up a grid-like formation. The lines run from top to bottom and from left to right side, covering the paper entirely with boxes, circles, rectangles, triangles, etc. Their notebooks and separate leaves are easily available in stores. They can also be downloaded from a computer. The basic use of such papers is to make different types of graphs and drawings.

Mostly graph papers with squares are used. However, there are numerous other shapes are available such as triangular, compacted circles, Wulff net, twill, overlapping circles, Cornell notepaper, tessellated, spaced circles, brick designs, etc. The squares on graph paper could be of various sizes depending upon the requirement of the user. They may vary from 1 line/inch to 24 lines/inch. Also, there are different formats of graph papers available depending upon the type of end-users. The formats are named millimeter paper, hexagonal paper, engineering paper, normal probability paper, polar coordinate paper, isometric graph paper, quad paper, etc. Graph papers are also categorized based on the different types of uses. For example; semi-log papers, Cartesian paper, polar graph paper, and unusual paper.

Graph papers are used by mathematicians and engineers for ages. It dates back to the 18^th century. In 1794, the very first graph paper with rectangular grids was published. Dr. Buxton from England had the copyrights of this paper. Later on, after about a century, a Professor from the University of Chicago stressed the use of graph papers with square lines, especially by the students who were getting higher education in universities. H. S. Hall and S. R. Knight, in their book ‘Algebra for Beginners (1906 Edition), advocated the use of good quality graph papers. In 1919, H. S. Hall and F. H. Stevens wrote a book called ‘A School Arithmetic’ in which they discussed a chapter related to the use of graph papers. W. A. Wilson and J. A. Tracey, in 1937, published a book on ‘Analytical Geometry’ in which graph papers were discussed. Britishers also frequently used the term squared paper in their books such as the book published by W. M. Baker and A. A. Bourne in 1961 named ‘Public School Arithmetic’.

Graph papers are generally used for drawing graphs with X-axis and Y-axis, for presenting statistical charts, and for plotting science and engineering experimental data. It is mostly used for graphing by engineering and mathematics students. Different home, landscape, art, and craft projects require the use of graph paper. Essentially, graph papers help us to properly list our data and make it easy for us to explain it to someone. In essence, one can use graph papers for any project related to work, home, and school.