Free Modulor Grid Generator
Apply Le Corbusier's Modulor instantly with our 100% free grid generator. Overlay the golden-section ladder with knee, navel, head and raised-hand marks, plus an optional human figure for scale, on any image, then export SVG or 600 DPI in seconds. No signup, no downloads needed. Trusted by 60,000+ artists worldwide.
Le Corbusier's two series
The Modulor: red and blue series derived from a 1,829 mm human figure and the golden ratio, giving proportional divisions intended to suit the body rather than the page. Both series are drawn together, which is how they were meant to be used.
3 controls, not a fixed picture
Set scale, toggle human figure and phi guide labels. Every one is live on the canvas.
Stacks with layout & design
Overlays combine, each carrying its own transform, so this one can sit under or over modular grid, baseline grid and column, and 11 more in the same set.
An architectural proportion, printed
Export as PDF at 300 or 600 DPI for drawing-board use, or as SVG to bring the series into a CAD or layout program.
| Ctrl + Z | Undo |
| Ctrl + Y | Redo |
| Esc | Deselect overlay |
| Alt + drag | Free positioning (no snap) |
| Ctrl + scroll | Zoom canvas |
| Ctrl + P | |
| ? | Show this help |
Four guides in a complete golden-ratio series, tied to the body rather than to the page — the proportion system Le Corbusier built to make buildings fit the people in them.
The modulor grid generator draws one of the 82 composition overlays in Grid Maker Pro, and the rest stack on the same image.
- 1/φ³ · 1/φ² · 1/φ · 1
- 0.382 navel
- SVG + 600 DPI export
- Nothing uploaded
What is the Modulor?
The Modulor grid generator is a free browser tool that draws Le Corbusier's proportion ladder. Horizontal guides sit at the knee, navel, head and raised hand of a standing figure, spaced so that each falls at a successive power of the golden ratio — 1/φ³, 1/φ², 1/φ and 1 of the full raised-hand height. An optional stick figure and labels can be shown. It draws over your own photograph or a blank canvas, exports SVG and raster to 600 DPI, and never uploads anything.
How to use the Modulor grid
Le Corbusier's two series set against a blank elevation, with the standing figure for scale, so the dimensions on the drawing are ones a human body actually produces.
Load the elevation and set the scale
The Modulor ladder needs an elevation: drop in a drawing, a photograph of a facade, or start blank. The scale slider runs 60% to 100% of the canvas height, which is how you match the ladder to a figure of the right size within your drawing.
JPG · PNG · GIF · WEBP
Read the four guides
Floor, knee, navel, head, raised hand. Each successive mark divides the remainder in golden section, so the ladder is not four arbitrary heights but a single geometric series you can extend in either direction.
Scale · Human figure · Phi guide labels
Test your dimensions against it, then export
The point of the system is to check whether a sill, a handrail, a shelf or a datum lands near a human dimension. Export SVG for vector or a raster up to 600 DPI sized to your paper.
PNG · JPG · PDF · SVG · up to 600 DPI
Three steps, about a minute. No signup, no upload.
What the Modulor Grid Generator does
A complete φ series
The Modulor's four marks land at 1/φ³, 1/φ², 1/φ and 1 of the full height — 0.236, 0.382, 0.618 and 1. That is one geometric ratio applied three times, not four separate measurements, which is what lets you extend the ladder past either end.
A figure, optionally
A stick figure drawn to the same ladder, so the abstraction stays attached to the thing it measures. Turn it off once the guides are doing the work and you want a clean drawing.
Labelled guides
Floor, knee, navel, head and raised hand, named on the drawing. Three hours into a design you want to know which datum you are working to without counting up from the bottom.
Human rather than metric
Every dimension in the system is a body dimension. A sill height, a handrail, a counter, a door head — the ladder tells you whether yours corresponds to something a person actually has, or to a round number in your unit of choice.
Over your own drawing
Lay it on an elevation, a photograph of a facade, or a section, and see where the existing dimensions fall. That is more informative than a blank template, because the question is always about a specific building.
Vector out
SVG keeps each guide as an editable line, so the ladder drops into a CAD or vector drawing as a construction layer. Raster export runs to 600 DPI, sized from the paper format.
Modulor examples: four ways the Modulor ladder reads
Modulor vs the published Modulor tape vs setting it out by hand in CAD
| Option | Ladder drawn | Over your own drawing | Vector export | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grid Maker Prothis tool | Four φ guides plus figure | Yes | SVG + raster to 600 DPI | Free |
| The published Modulor tape | Both series in full | No | n/a | Out of print |
| Setting it out by hand in CAD | Yesto your own figures | Yes | Yes | Time |
| A printed proportion chart | Fixed | No | No | Per copy |
Who the Modulor is for: dimensions that answer to people
How it works — The Modulor: a proportion system built from a man, and what this overlay actually draws
The Modulor is a measuring system in which the golden ratio and the human body are made to agree, and Le Corbusier spent most of the 1940s building it. It is the most argued-about of the 82 composition overlays. The result is the most ambitious proportion system of the twentieth century and the most argued-about, and it is worth being precise about which part of it this overlay draws.
The problem the Modulor was built to solve is real, and for anyone dimensioning a building it remains current. Buildings are dimensioned in units — metres or feet — that have nothing to do with people. A 3-metre ceiling is a round number in one system and an odd one in the other, and neither says anything about whether a person can reach the top shelf.
Le Corbusier's proposal, published as Le Modulor in 1948, was a scale whose every increment is both a human dimension and a term in a golden-ratio series. Get that and you have a set of dimensions that are harmonically related to each other and physically meaningful.
The base figure went through a famous revision. The first version used a man of 1.75 metres, roughly the French average. On the suggestion of a colleague — the story is that English detective novels always described their heroes as six feet tall — it was changed to 1829 mm, exactly six feet, which had the useful side effect of making the series land on round inch values as well as round centimetre ones.
The red and the blue series
From that man come two series. The red, based on the navel at 1130 mm: 1130, 698, 432, 267, 165, 102, 63, and so on downward, each term the previous divided by φ. The blue, based on the raised hand at 2260 mm, which is exactly twice the navel height: 2260, 1397, 863, 534, 330.
The ratios are worth checking rather than taking on trust. Dividing 1829 by 1130 lands within four hundredths of a percent of φ, which is as close as a pair of whole-millimetre figures can get. The knee at 698 mm against 1829 divided by φ² gives 698.6. Both correct.
Where this overlay diverges from the published system
Now the honest part, because this overlay diverges from the published system in one specific place.
The four guides drawn here sit at 1/φ³, 1/φ², 1/φ and 1 of the total drawn height — 0.236, 0.382, 0.618 and 1. Reading it the other way, with the head at 1 and the raised hand above it, the raised hand comes out at 1 + 1/φ = 1.618 times the head height.
Le Corbusier's raised hand is at 2260 mm against a height of 1829, which is 1.2356 — that is 2/φ, not φ. The overlay's raised hand therefore sits about 31% higher than the published Modulor puts it.
What the overlay draws is a clean four-term φ ladder in which every step is the same ratio. What Le Corbusier published is a system where the descending series is φ but the raised hand is defined as exactly twice the navel, which breaks the single ratio at that one point.
Everything below the head — knee at 0.382, navel at 0.618 of the head height — matches the published red series exactly. It is only the top mark that differs, and it differs because the overlay chose consistency where Le Corbusier chose a doubling.
That is worth knowing rather than glossing. If you are studying the Modulor as a historical system, use the published figures. If you want a golden-section ladder tied to human scale for design work, the overlay's version is the more internally consistent object and is what most people actually want on the drawing.
The Modulor overlay page sets out the system in full, beside the rest of the architecture grid overlays. Its reception has been mixed from the beginning, and the criticisms are substantive. Rudolf Wittkower, whose Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism did more than anything to revive interest in proportion systems, was sceptical that a single ratio could carry the weight Le Corbusier put on it.
The criticisms of the Modulor
The strongest practical criticism is about the base figure. A system of human proportion built on a six-foot man describes a fairly narrow slice of humanity, and the buildings dimensioned from it inherit that. The Unité d'Habitation in Marseille — the Modulor's most complete demonstration — has ceiling heights of 2.26 metres, which is the raised-hand dimension and which a number of residents have found low.
There is also a deeper objection: that the golden ratio's aesthetic authority is largely assumed rather than demonstrated. The golden ratio generator draws the ratio on its own terms and the phi rectangle generator the rectangle it names, neither of which needs a human figure to justify it. The experimental literature on whether people prefer golden-section rectangles is, at best, inconclusive, and much of the historical evidence for its use in classical architecture turns out on measurement to be retrofitted.
None of that makes the Modulor useless. What it makes is a design tool rather than a natural law, and the distinction matters for how you use it. A proportion system's real work is to reduce the number of arbitrary decisions in a building — if every dimension comes from one series, the building has an internal consistency it would not otherwise have, whether or not the particular ratio is special.
Using the Modulor in practice
Used that way the Modulor is genuinely good. The dimensions in it are usable: 863 mm is a decent counter height, 1130 mm a reasonable handrail-and-a-bit, 698 mm a sensible seat-to-table, 432 mm a seat height. Those are not accidents — they come from a body.
The most common practical use of an overlay like this is checking rather than generating. Lay it on an elevation you have already drawn and see where your dimensions fall. Ones near a Modulor guide are probably fine. Ones exactly between two guides are worth a second look, because they are likely to have come from a round number rather than a reason.
The scale control exists for exactly that. Setting the ladder to match a figure of the right size within a drawing — a person standing in an elevation, a doorway, a known dimension — is what ties the abstract series to the specific building.
For interiors the ladder is at its most useful, because interior dimensions are dominated by reach and sight. Where a shelf can go, where a light switch reads as natural, how high a counter should be — these are all human dimensions before they are metric ones, and the ladder puts them on the drawing.
The figure and the labels
The figure can be turned off, and usually should be once you are past the setting-up stage. It is there to keep the abstraction attached to what it measures, which matters at the start and becomes clutter once the guides are doing the work.
The labels serve the same purpose in reverse: once the figure is gone, they are the only thing telling you which guide is which. Turn them off for a clean export and on while you are working.
A note on drawing this over a photograph: perspective will defeat you unless the photograph is close to an elevation. A facade shot square on works; a three-quarter view does not, because the vertical dimensions in the picture are foreshortened by an amount that varies with distance. For anything other than a flat-on view, use a drawing.
The export sizes itself from the paper format and the DPI you choose rather than from your screen. SVG keeps each guide as an editable line, which is what you want when the ladder is going into a CAD drawing as a construction layer.
Everything runs in your browser. Images you load are never uploaded, because there is no server for them to reach. The drawing, the transform and the export all happen on your own machine.
Where the Modulor gets used
Checking, not generating. Lay it on an elevation you have drawn and see which dimensions came from a reason and which came from a round number.
Interiors are where it earns its keep, because reach and sight are human dimensions before they are metric ones.
I teach it as a design tool with a documented base figure and documented critics, not as a law of nature. The students argue better that way.
Modulor: frequently asked questions
The geometry
Where exactly do the four guides sit?
At 1/φ³, 1/φ², 1/φ and 1 of the full drawn height — 0.236, 0.382, 0.618 and 1. Those are the knee, navel, head and raised hand. One ratio applied three times, which is what lets the ladder be extended past either end.
Does this match Le Corbusier's published figures?
Below the head, exactly. His man is 1829 mm with the navel at 1130, a ratio within four hundredths of a percent of φ, and the knee at 698 mm against 1829 ÷ φ² = 698.6. The overlay reproduces both. The raised hand differs: he defines it as twice the navel, which is 2260 mm or 1.236 times the height, where the overlay uses φ, about 31% higher.
Why does the overlay differ there?
Because it draws a consistent four-term φ ladder, where the published system breaks the ratio at the top by defining the raised hand as a doubling. For studying the Modulor as history, use his figures. For a golden-section ladder tied to human scale in design work, the consistent version is the more usable object.
Why is the base figure six feet tall?
Because the series was re-cut to land on round imperial values as well as metric ones. The first version used 1.75 m, roughly the French average, and was revised to 1829 mm — exactly six feet — partly on the observation that English detective fiction always made its heroes six feet, and partly because it made the series land on round inch values as well as round centimetre ones.
What are the red and blue series?
Two golden-ratio sequences. Red descends from the navel at 1130 mm: 1130, 698, 432, 267, 165, 102, 63. Blue descends from the raised hand at 2260 mm: 2260, 1397, 863, 534, 330. Between them they give a dense set of usable dimensions.
Is the Modulor actually a good system?
As a design tool, yes — it reduces the number of arbitrary dimensions in a building, and its numbers are genuinely usable because they come from a body. As a claim about universal beauty it is much weaker: the experimental evidence for golden-section preference is inconclusive, and much of the historical evidence for its use in classical architecture is retrofitted.
What is the main criticism?
That a system of human proportion built on a six-foot man describes a narrow slice of humanity, and the buildings inherit it. The Unité d'Habitation in Marseille — the system's fullest demonstration — has 2.26 m ceilings, the raised-hand dimension, which a number of residents have found low.
Should I use it to generate dimensions or to check them?
Checking is the more productive use. Lay it on an elevation you have already drawn and see where your dimensions fall. Ones near a guide are probably fine; ones exactly between two guides usually came from a round number rather than a reason.
Can I use it over a photograph of a building?
Only if the photograph is close to a straight-on elevation. A three-quarter view foreshortens vertical dimensions by an amount that varies with distance, so the ladder will not correspond to anything. For any other view, use a drawing.
Using it
What does the scale control actually move?
The whole ladder, together. Because every guide is a power of φ away from the next, scaling keeps the ratios and changes only the height the series is pegged to — so you set it by putting one guide on something real in the drawing, and the rest land where the system says they should.
Should I turn the figure off?
Once you have oriented yourself, yes. The standing figure is what makes the ladder legible the first time; after that it is a picture of a man in the middle of your elevation, and the four guides are the part you are working against.
Export and print
Can I get the guides into CAD?
Export SVG and import it as a background layer — the guides arrive as vector lines at their exact spacing, which is what you want to snap to. Setting the same series out by hand in CAD means typing four φ multiples and getting one of them wrong.
What do I print for a site review?
A raster at 300 DPI on A3 is enough to read the four guides against a printed elevation, and the export is sized from the paper rather than from the screen, so the proportions on the sheet are the proportions in the file. Take the grid-only PNG if you want to overlay it on a drawing someone else printed.
Choosing a grid
Is this a better proportion system than a plain structural grid?
It answers a different question entirely. A structural grid generator tells you where the columns go; the Modulor tells you what heights read as related to a human body. Most buildings want both, and they answer to different constraints — one to spans, one to eye level.
Practical matters
Does anything I load get uploaded?
No. There is no server to upload to. The image is read by your browser, the grid is drawn on your machine, and the export is generated locally.
Can I use it in a class on proportion systems?
Yes, and it is a good subject for one, criticism included. Nothing is metered or gated, so a room of students can each load their own elevation, and the argument about whether the series really is anthropometric is more interesting when everyone can see the guides on their own drawing.
Open the tool Modulor grid generator
One ratio, four human heights
The Modulor is a φ ladder held against a building. Export vector or 600 DPI. No signup, nothing uploaded.
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