College Ruled Paper

Printable college ruled paper, ready to print on 8.5 x 11 inch paper. College ruled means the writing lines sit 9/32 of an inch apart (about 7.1 mm) — the spacing used in most notebooks from about fourth grade upwards. If you want the lines closer together, narrow ruled is in the panel below as well.

Start fromCollege ruledNarrow ruled

Customize this lined paper

The lines

Line height

incmmm

College ruled is 0.28 in, wide ruled 0.34 in, narrow 0.25 in.

Which lines Top line Dashed middle line Writing line Descender line

ColourAll blackRed writing lineBlue top and writing lines

Spacing

Space between linesNoneHalf a lineA full line

Number of lines0 fills the page.

Left margin line

Picture box

Box height

incm

0 for no box. A box gives children room to draw above their writing.

The page

Margin

incm

Sheets in this PDF

Name and date line Border DadsWorksheets logo at the foot

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0.28 in ruling · base · 1 sheet

Print at 100% or Actual size — not “Fit to page”, which shrinks the sheet and makes the measurements wrong.

0.28 in ruling · base · 1 sheetUS Letter · print at 100%

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Options ↓

College Ruled or Wide Ruled?

The two standard rulings differ only in how far apart the lines sit. College ruled is 9/32 inch (7.1 mm) and fits about 33 lines on a page. Wide ruled is 11/32 inch (8.7 mm) and fits about 27. Wide ruled is the usual choice up to third grade or so, and for anyone whose handwriting is large; college ruled fits more on the page and is what most older students and adults use. Narrow ruled, at 1/4 inch, packs in more still and suits small, confident handwriting.

If you are printing for a child who is still forming letters rather than writing sentences, the three-line primary writing paper is a better fit than any of these — it has a dashed guide line through the middle to show letter height.

Printing This Paper

Print at 100% or Actual Size, not "Fit to Page". Scaling changes the line spacing, so a sheet printed to fit is no longer college ruled. Everything on this page is designed for US Letter (8.5 x 11 inch) paper.

The margin line is optional, and so is the name and date row at the top — turn either off in the panel if you want a plain sheet. You can also set the number of lines directly, which is useful when you want a fixed amount of writing space for an assignment.