One grid behind every craft.
Quilting, cross-stitch, knitting, papercraft, beadwork, tabletop maps — every craft that counts cells runs on the same idea: a grid at the project's true scale. Grid Maker Pro is the one free tool behind all of them. Set the cell in inches or centimetres, pick the geometry your craft uses, and print at 1:1 for a cutting template you can build on directly. Plan it on the grid before a single piece of fabric, paper, or felt gets cut.
Start with your craft's guide.
Each craft works a grid a little differently — a quilter sets a block size, a cross-stitcher matches an Aida count, a knitter accounts for stitch gauge, a game master scales a battle map to five feet a square. Four crafts have a full guide that walks the exact overlay and settings. Start there, then come back for the wider overlay set.
Quilters
Block layouts, EPP hexagons, half-square triangles, Lone Star diamonds.
Cross-stitch
Aida-count charts at 11, 14, 16, 18 ct and evenweave grids.
Knitters
Stitch-gauge grids for charts that match the knit, not the paper.
D&D & tabletop
Square battle grids, pointy/flat hexes, dungeon dot plans.
From idea to object in four moves.
A craft project goes wrong at the measuring, not the making. Set the grid to the real cell size, print it at 1:1, and the template on the bench is the exact size of the cut — no scaling, no fit-to-page, no quiet drift between the plan and the piece. Measure once on the grid; cut with confidence after.
Sketch the project
Block out the design over a grid on screen or paper. Decide the geometry it wants.
Set the true cell size
Inches or centimetres. Match the block, stitch count, or map square exactly.
Print at 1:1
PDF to US Letter or A4 with no scaling. The printed cell is the real cut size.
Cut, fold, or build
Trace, cut around, or build straight on the template. The geometry is guaranteed.
Six geometries that build most projects.
Pick the lattice the craft is built on and the rest follows. Square for blocks and stitches, hexagon for paper-piecing and honeycomb, triangle for tessellated cuts, diamond for argyle and stars, dot for journals and dungeon plans, radial for mandalas and rosettes. Six geometries cover the overwhelming majority of cell-counting crafts.
The maker's overlay set.
What makers actually use it for.
I print a 1-centimetre square grid at true scale and cut my card stock straight off it. The trick is no fit-to-page — the moment the printer scales it, every fold is two millimetres off and the box won't close. The grid printed at 1:1 is the one tool that makes paper engineering actually fold flat.
A geometric veneer panel is a diamond or hexagon grid and nothing more. I draft the lattice at the panel's real size, print it, and use it as the cutting template under the veneer. Every piece meets its neighbour because the grid measured it, not my eye at the end of a long day.
Loom beadwork is a square grid; brick stitch is offset. I chart the design on the matching overlay and the bead count is exact before I thread a single seed bead. Frogging a beaded panel is heartbreak — planning it on the grid is how you only do it once.
The three questions makers ask.
Can I print a grid at true 1:1 size?
Yes. Set the cell dimension in inches or centimetres and export as a PDF with no fit-to-page, and the printed cell is the real cut size. A 1-inch hexagon prints as a 1-inch hexagon, a 5-foot battle square prints to its tile — the grid is a true-scale template you can cut around, trace, or build on directly.
Which grid fits my craft?
Square for quilt blocks, cross-stitch, and beadwork on a square loom. Hexagonal for English Paper Piecing and honeycomb projects. Triangular for half-square and tessellated cuts. Diamond for argyle and Lone Star. Dot for bullet-journal layouts and dungeon plans. Each craft has a dedicated guide — quilters, cross-stitch, knitters, and tabletop — that recommends the exact overlay and cell size.
Does it work in metric and imperial?
Both. Set the cell in inches or centimetres directly, so a US quilter can work in ½-inch blocks while a European crafter works in 1-centimetre cells from the same tool. The export carries the unit you set, so the printed template matches your ruler whichever system you cut to.
Every craft's grid, at true scale.
Set the cell in inches or centimetres, pick the geometry your craft runs on, and print at 1:1 for a cutting template you can build on. No signup, no upload — and if your craft has a dedicated guide, it names the exact settings.
Open the maker's grids →References
- Pye, David. The Nature and Art of Workmanship. Cambridge University Press (1968). On craft, jigs, and the discipline of accurate layout.
- Müller-Brockmann, Josef. Grid Systems in Graphic Design. Niggli (1981). ISBN 978-3-7212-0145-1. The grid as a modular planning system.
- Hambidge, Jay. The Elements of Dynamic Symmetry. Yale University Press (1920). Dover reprint, ISBN 0-486-21776-0. Proportion systems for layout.