Free Phi Rectangle Grid Generator
Draw the phi rectangle with its working armature instantly with our 100% free grid generator. Mark both diagonals, four reciprocals and the four eyes over any image, then export SVG or 600 DPI in seconds. No signup, no downloads needed. Trusted by 60,000+ artists worldwide.
A rectangle of 1:1.618
The golden rectangle itself, drawn to the ratio and placed within the frame — the shape whose defining property is that removing a square from it leaves a smaller rectangle of the same proportion.
4 controls, not a fixed picture
Toggle rectangle outline, reciprocals, eyes (intersection points) and square + smaller Phi subdivision. Every one is live on the canvas.
Stacks with composition & photography
Overlays combine, each carrying its own transform, so this one can sit under or over rule of thirds, golden spiral and armature (14-line), and 15 more in the same set.
A true proportion on paper
The ratio is geometric, so a PDF printed at 300 or 600 DPI measures 1:1.618 with a ruler. SVG for anyone who needs the rectangle as a path.
| Ctrl + Z | Undo |
| Ctrl + Y | Redo |
| Esc | Deselect overlay |
| Alt + drag | Free positioning (no snap) |
| Ctrl + scroll | Zoom canvas |
| Ctrl + P | |
| ? | Show this help |
A 1 : 1.618 rectangle is only a shape. Add both diagonals, the four reciprocals dropped onto them at right angles, and the four eyes where those land, and it becomes a set of placements you can compose against.
The phi rectangle generator draws one of the 82 composition overlays in Grid Maker Pro, and the rest stack on the same image.
- 1 : 1.618
- 4 eyes at 0.276
- SVG + 600 DPI export
- Nothing uploaded
What is a phi rectangle?
The phi rectangle generator is a free browser tool that draws the golden rectangle and its armature over any image or blank canvas. It letterboxes the largest 1 : 1.618 rectangle that fits your canvas, then draws both diagonals, four reciprocals — a perpendicular dropped from each corner onto the diagonal that does not pass through it — and marks the four eyes where those reciprocals land, at 0.276 and 0.724 of the width and the height. An optional line at 1/φ splits it into a square and a smaller phi rectangle. Export is SVG or raster to 600 DPI.
How to use the phi rectangle
A rectangle at 1:1.618 with its reciprocals and its four eyes marked, over a canvas or a photograph, so the placements are visible rather than measured.
Open the phi rectangle
The largest 1 : 1.618 rectangle that fits your canvas is drawn and centred, with both diagonals. If your canvas is not itself a golden rectangle, the shape is inset — which is the honest result, and visible.
JPG · PNG · GIF · WEBP
Turn on the parts you are working to
Show the reciprocals to get the four eyes, or hide them for the bare diagonals. Turn on the 1/φ subdivision to see the square-plus-smaller-rectangle split the whole system is built from.
Rectangle outline · Reciprocals
Place, then export
Put your subject on an eye and a counterweight on the diagonal running away from it. 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 Phi Rectangle Generator does
Two diagonals, not one
The phi rectangle carries both its diagonals: the baroque runs up to the right, the sinister down to the right. Together they cross at the centre and give the reciprocals something to be perpendicular to — a single diagonal cannot generate the eyes.
Four eyes, further out than the thirds
The reciprocals land at 0.276 and 0.724 of each side. The rule-of-thirds points sit at 0.333 and 0.667, so the eyes are about six percent of the frame further from centre — a visible difference, and the reason the two systems suggest different crops.
The 1/φ split, on demand
One line at 0.618 divides the rectangle into a square and a smaller golden rectangle — the self-similar property the entire system rests on. Turn it on to see why the proportion is worth caring about, and off when you are composing.
Letterboxed, and honest about it
If your canvas is not a golden rectangle, the overlay draws the largest one that fits and centres it. You can see the inset, which is the truthful rendering — a φ armature stretched to a 16:9 frame is not a φ armature any more.
Its own transform
Drag, scale and rotate the whole armature over your image. The right angles travel with it, so you can align the rectangle to a subject that is not square to the frame and the eyes stay correct.
Vector or print size
SVG export keeps every line as vector, which matters for an armature you may want to plot or scale. Raster export is sized from the paper format and DPI you choose, up to 600.
Phi rectangle examples: four ways the armature reads
Phi rectangle vs a crop guide's phi grid vs drawing it with a straightedge
| Option | Reciprocals at true right angles | Eyes marked | Vector export | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grid Maker Prothis tool | Yescomputed perpendicular feet | Yesall four | SVG + raster to 600 DPI | Free |
| A crop guide's phi grid | Not applicable — different construction | Noit draws bands | No | Included |
| Drawing it with a straightedge | Only as accurately as you square it | By construction | No | Time |
| A downloaded armature template | Whatever the original had | Usually | Rarely | Free or paid |
Who a phi rectangle is for: work where the proportion is chosen first
How a phi rectangle works — One proportion, two diagonals, four eyes — and why this is not the phi grid
The golden rectangle is famous as a shape and useless as one. Of the 82 composition overlays it is the one reproduced most without the armature that makes it work. What makes it a compositional system is the armature drawn inside it, and that armature is a different thing from the four-line phi grid most photographers mean when they say phi. Both are here; this page is about the first.
A golden rectangle is a rectangle whose sides are in the ratio 1 : 1.618. Its defining property is self-similarity: cut a square off one end and the piece left over is another golden rectangle. Do it again and you get a third. The overlay can draw that first cut — a single line at 1/φ, 0.618 of the long side — and it is the only line in the whole construction that explains why the proportion is special.
Everything else in the overlay is the armature. Both diagonals, corner to corner. Then four reciprocals: from each corner, a line dropped onto whichever diagonal does not already pass through that corner, meeting it at a right angle. The four points where those reciprocals land are the eyes.
The proportion is the container. The armature is what tells you where to put things inside it.
Where the eyes actually fall
At 0.276 and 0.724 of the width, and the same fractions of the height — four points, symmetric about the centre. The exact value is 1 divided by φ√5, which is 0.2763932.
Put that beside the rule of thirds, whose intersections sit at 0.333 and 0.667, and the difference is about 5.7% of the frame in each direction. That is not a rounding error; it is a visibly different placement, and it is why a composition that reads as balanced on thirds can read as slightly timid against the phi armature. The eyes push the subject further toward the edge and leave more room behind it.
This is not the phi grid, and the distinction matters
A photographer saying “phi grid” means the four-line grid at 0.382 and 0.618 — the golden-ratio cousin of the rule of thirds, offered by Lightroom and darktable as a crop guide. That is a division of the whole frame into 1 : φ : 1 bands, and it works on any aspect ratio.
What this page draws is dynamic symmetry: a rectangle of a specific proportion with a diagonal armature inside it. Different construction, different points, different use. If you came looking for the crop guide, the golden ratio tool is the one that draws it. If you came for Hambidge's armature, you are in the right place.
Hambidge, and what dynamic symmetry claimed
Jay Hambidge published The Elements of Dynamic Symmetry in 1920, out of lectures given at the Yale School of Fine Arts. The phi rectangle overlay page sets this out, beside the rest of the dynamic symmetry overlays. His argument was that Greek design used a family of root rectangles — √2, √3, √5 and the golden rectangle — together with reciprocal diagonals, and that the resulting armatures explain the proportions of Greek vases and temples.
The historical claim is contested and was contested at the time. What survived the argument is the method: choosing a rectangle first, then composing on its own diagonals and reciprocals rather than on an imported grid, produces a coherence that is genuinely hard to get another way. Robert Henri and George Bellows both taught from it, and it is still standard in atelier instruction — not because the archaeology holds up, but because the compositions do.
Working on a canvas that is not a golden rectangle
The overlay letterboxes: it draws the largest 1 : 1.618 rectangle that fits your canvas, centred, and leaves the rest of the frame outside the construction. That is deliberate. Stretching a φ armature to fill a 16:9 frame would keep the picture tidy and destroy the thing being drawn, because a stretched golden rectangle is not a golden rectangle and its eyes are no longer at 0.276.
So the visible inset is information. If you are shooting to compose on dynamic symmetry, it tells you how much of your frame is outside the system and prompts the obvious question — whether to crop to φ. If you are checking an existing image, it shows you honestly that the armature applies to a region rather than to the whole picture.
The same armature, four other proportions
The golden rectangle is one member of a family. Hambidge's root rectangles — 1:√2, 1:√3, 1:2 and 1:√5, which the root-2 armature generator and the root-5 armature generator draw — take exactly the same treatment: both diagonals, four reciprocals, four eyes. The construction does not care what the ratio is, only that you chose one and stayed with it, and each ratio puts its eyes somewhere slightly different.
That is worth knowing before you commit to φ. The √2 rectangle is the proportion of every A-series paper size, so its armature is the one that matches a sheet you can actually buy; 1:2 is the double square, which is the proportion of a great many panel paintings and nearly every panoramic crop. If your surface is already one of those, using its own armature beats forcing a golden rectangle into it — and the whole family is in the same tool.
How to use it without it becoming a formula
Show the least you need. The full armature is ten lines and four dots, and used all at once it will find something near everything. Start with the two diagonals and one eye; add the reciprocals when you are deciding where a second mass goes; add the 1/φ subdivision only when you are working out the proportions of a panel rather than composing a picture.
And use the transform. The armature can be rotated and scaled onto a subject that is not square to the frame — a tilted building, a figure lying diagonally — and the right angles come with it. What you give up is the relationship to the frame's own corners; what you get is a proportional system aligned to the thing the picture is actually about, which is usually the better trade.
Where a phi rectangle gets used
Panel proportions, before anything is drawn. I pick the rectangle, mark the eyes on the ground, and the composition is half decided before the first mark.
The eyes sitting further out than the thirds is the whole reason I use it. My compositions were consistently too centred and I could not see it until I had both overlays on the same frame.
Teaching dynamic symmetry without a tool means twenty minutes with a ruler before anyone has composed anything. This gets to the interesting part immediately.
Phi rectangle: frequently asked questions
The geometry
Is this the same as the phi grid?
No, and they get confused constantly. The phi grid is four lines at 0.382 and 0.618 dividing the whole frame into 1 : φ : 1 bands — the golden-ratio cousin of the rule of thirds, and what crop guides in photo software mean by phi. This is a 1 : 1.618 rectangle with a diagonal armature inside it: different construction, different points, different use.
Where exactly do the eyes fall?
At 0.2763932 and 0.7236068 of the width, and the same fractions of the height. The exact value is 1 divided by φ√5. Compare that with the rule of thirds at 0.333 and 0.667 and the eyes sit about 5.7% of the frame further from the centre.
What is a reciprocal?
A line dropped from a corner onto whichever diagonal does not pass through that corner, meeting it at a right angle. Four corners give four reciprocals, and the points where they land on the diagonals are the eyes. It is the defining move of dynamic symmetry.
Why is the rectangle inset on my canvas?
Because your canvas is not a golden rectangle, and the overlay draws the largest one that fits rather than stretching to fill. A stretched golden rectangle is not a golden rectangle — its eyes would no longer be at 0.276 — so the inset is the truthful rendering, and it tells you how much of the frame sits outside the system.
What does the 1/φ subdivision line show?
The single cut that makes the proportion special: it divides the golden rectangle into a square and a smaller golden rectangle. Repeat that cut and you get the sequence of nested rectangles the golden spiral is drawn across.
Is dynamic symmetry historically real?
Hambidge's 1920 claim that Greek design was built on root rectangles and reciprocals is contested, and was contested at the time. The method outlived the argument: composing on a chosen rectangle's own diagonals produces a coherence that is hard to get otherwise, which is why it is still taught in ateliers regardless of the archaeology.
Should I crop my photograph to a golden rectangle?
Only if you want the armature to govern the whole frame. Otherwise leave the letterbox visible and treat the armature as governing a region — plenty of good pictures have a compositional core in a proportion different from their outer edge.
Using it
Can I rotate it onto a tilted subject?
Yes. The overlay carries its own transform, and the right angles are computed once and then the whole figure is moved, so rotating it keeps the reciprocals perpendicular and the eyes correct. You trade the relationship to the frame's corners for alignment with the subject.
The eyes are hard to find against a busy photograph.
Turn off the diagonals and the reciprocals and leave the eyes alone. Four points on a picture are far easier to judge against than four points inside eight lines, and the construction has done its job the moment the eyes are placed.
Can I use it to test a crop before I commit?
That is the best use of it. Drag and scale the armature over the picture and watch what the eyes touch as you move it — the crop that puts a subject on an eye is often not the crop you would have chosen, and it costs nothing to look.
Export and print
Can I export it as an SVG?
Yes. Ten straight lines and four dots export cleanly as vector, which is what you want for plotting a panel layout or scaling the armature to a large surface. Raster export goes to 600 DPI, sized from your chosen paper format.
What do I export to set out a panel?
SVG, so the diagonals reach exact corners at any size and the eyes stay at their derived positions. A stretcher built to 1 : 1.618 wants the proportion right to the millimetre, and a raster's rounding is enough to be visible on a long side.
Can I print the armature alone?
Yes — leave the image out and export the grid only, at any paper size up to A2 and 600 DPI. You get the rectangle, both diagonals, the four reciprocals, the eyes and the subdivision on a transparent ground.
Choosing a grid
Should I use this or the Fibonacci spiral?
The Fibonacci spiral generator for a subject with radial or unwinding structure — a shell, a wave, a curled figure. This for a subject organised against the frame's corners and edges. Both come out of the same rectangle; they answer different questions about what is in it.
Practical matters
Does my image get uploaded?
No. Everything happens in your browser — the image is drawn to a canvas on your own device and never sent anywhere. There is no account and no upload step.
Can I use it to lay out a book cover or an album sleeve?
Yes, and it suits that better than it suits photographs — a cover is a rectangle you get to choose, which is the case dynamic symmetry was built for. Set the panel to 1 : 1.618 and the armature is the real structure of the object rather than an overlay on someone else's frame.
Open the tool Phi rectangle generator
The proportion, and where to put things in it
The phi rectangle's armature is two diagonals, four reciprocals and four eyes at 0.276. Place it, then export vector or 600 DPI. No signup, nothing uploaded.
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