A 5 mm grid that measures 5 mm
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Paper type19
Notes & writing
Data & plotting
Planning
— mm
PNG at 300 DPI · SVG is vector, transparent · both export one sheet
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Prints a measured strip. If a ruler disagrees with it, your printer is scaling the page.
Preview · not to screen scale
1:1 detail · 62 × 40 mm
Drawn in real millimeters. Hold a ruler to the screen — if it disagrees, your display's reported DPI is wrong, not the PDF.
Printable grand staff paper, to exact spec
The grand staff is two staves, treble above bass, joined at the left and read as one system. Piano music needs it because two hands cover a range no single staff holds without ledger lines everywhere.
The gap between the two staves matters as much as the line gap itself. Middle C and its neighbors live in that space on ledger lines, and if the staves sit too close the pair reads as one ten-line blur. Here the gap scales with the line gap, so the proportion holds at any size you print.
Barlines run the full height of both staves, which is what binds them into a system rather than two staves that happen to be near each other. Clefs and key signatures you add yourself, and the brace is a straight heavy rule rather than an engraved curly one — the generator draws only lines and circles, and an approximated curly brace would look worse than an honest straight one.
The gap between the staves
The clefs are positioned so that a single ledger line between them is middle C. The two staves are one pitch space with a gap, not two independent systems.
The distance between them is therefore a musical measurement. Too close and the ten lines read as one block, with a note on the middle ledger line becoming ambiguous. Too far and the ledger lines above the bass staff stop meeting those below the treble. Engraving convention puts the gap at roughly one staff height.
Here it scales with the line gap, so the proportion holds at any size you print.
The brace
The mark joining the staves at the left shows they are played by one performer. In engraved music it is a curly brace.
Here it is a straight heavy rule. The engine draws lines and circles, and a curly brace approximated from those would look worse than a plain substitute.
A brace joins staves played by one performer. A bracket, a straight line with square ends, joins different performers within a section of a score.
Writing piano music by hand
Cross-staff writing puts a passage on whichever staff keeps the ledger lines manageable, with the beam crossing between them. Decide which staff a passage belongs on before writing it rather than partway through.
Piano music also carries more than one voice per staff, separated by stem direction, with rests placed in each voice's half of the staff. That needs vertical room inside the staff, which argues for the wider line gap when writing by hand.
Other instruments
Harp, celesta, marimba and accordion use the grand staff for the same reason as piano.
Organ music usually needs three staves, the third for the pedals, and this page draws pairs. The plain staff paper page gives evenly spaced single staves you can group yourself.
Harmonic analysis, four-part writing and figured bass all use a grand staff, and there the wider gap leaves room for figures under the bass staff.
Frequently asked questions
What line gap?
2mm is standard. Wider for ledger lines, accidentals and fingering.
Room for ledger lines between the staves?
Yes — the gap scales with your line gap.
Does it print clefs and the brace?
No clefs. The brace is a straight heavy rule rather than an engraved curly one, because the generator draws only lines and circles.