How far apart are wide ruled lines?

11/32 of an inch, or about 8.7 mm.

Is college ruled or wide ruled better for college?

Most college students use college ruled because it fits more on each page, but choose whatever suits your handwriting.

What line spacing do A4 notebooks use?

Metric notebooks commonly use 8 mm or 7 mm spacing, close to wide and college ruled respectively.

College ruled vs wide ruled paper

The only real difference is how far apart the lines are — but that small gap changes how much fits on a page and how comfortable it is to write.

Open Printable Lined Paper

Rulings compared

*Approximate, on US Letter paper with header space at the top and a small bottom margin.

Ruling	Line spacing	Lines per page*	Best for
Wide ruled	11/32 in (8.7 mm)	About 27	Young children, larger handwriting
College ruled	9/32 in (7.1 mm)	About 33	High school, college and general notes
Narrow ruled	1/4 in (6.4 mm)	About 37	Small handwriting, dense notes

Which should you choose?

Wide ruled: early grades, anyone who writes large, or when neatness matters more than space.
College ruled: the default for most students and adults — a good balance of space and readability.
Narrow ruled: fits the most text; best for small handwriting and dense note-taking.

Print your own

Need a specific ruling on A4 or Letter? The lined paper generator prints college, wide, narrow or custom spacing with an optional red margin line and header space, as a crisp vector PDF.

Tools used in this guide

Printable Lined PaperCollege, wide or narrow ruled paper Printable Graph PaperCustom graph paper PDFs to print Printable Dot Grid PaperDot grid pages for journals and sketching