Print your own Gregg ruled paper

As I understand it, Gregg ruled paper is three lines to the inch.
If you can’t get hold of proper steno pads (like here in Germany, where Gregg never really took hold!), one way out is to print your own.
http://www.incompetech.com/graphpaper/writing.html has several different PDF generators.
The lined paper generator may be useful (it lets you specify the line spacing in lines per inch), or the notebook paper generator which gives you a line down the left-hand side; the “wide” spacing is pretty nearly three lines per inch, as far as I can tell.
If you want a line down the middle and three-inch columns you can also give the simple asymmetric graph paper generator a try: set the horizontal spacing to 3 inches, bold every 0 lines, and vertical to 0.333 inches, bold every 0 lines. Or if you want wider columns on 8½×11″ paper, try 3.7 inches for horizontal spacing.

(by Philip for everyone)


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10 comments Add yours
  1. I used it when I was learning German “Stiefografie” shorthand (which is best written on paper with two or three thin lines between every thick line): it was really handy to have “proper” shorthand paper!

    And I thought it must be possible to use it for Gregg, too 🙂

  2. Oooh, good idea! Divide each line in half, and add a vertical rule.

    I still have problems with line lengths, especially n/m/mm. Yes, a good number of them won't start and stop on the grid, but the first shape of each word should, and others can go middle-to-middle.

  3. Play around with the simple asymmetric generator!

    It’ll give you line-down-the-middle, and if you want more vertical rules to help you coordinate your n/m/mm lines, you could tell it to do lots of light ones and one bolder one by choosing the right numbers for “horizontal spacing” and “bold ever ___ lines”.

    You could even do more vertical guidelines (say, vertical spacing of 0.083 inch, bold every four lines), then the bold lines are Gregg-ruled full lines and the light lines show you the height of a comma-s (“f” would be two lines tall and “v” four light lines = one bold line).

  4. Very handy. I have no shortage of steno pads, but sometimes a loose-leaf notebook is more practical. With practice, you can adjust your proportions to the spacing of your paper, but it's nicer to have properly-spaced paper to begin with!

  5. This is very good! Too bad I cannot put a line in the middle automatically, but with Adobe Acrobat you an insert a middle line on the generated pdf, :-).

  6. i just wanted to point out that regular school notebook paper that is "wide ruled" is gregg ruled – three lines to one inch. It can be found very cheap and i use it because i can better copy the book by making one single column matching the shorthand plates i am copying from. Then i can trash (recycle) the sheet and not have tons of useless notes. FYI.

  7. You're right. It works well when I can find it. Most of what I find is either college-ruled (a bit small, but workable) or narrow-ruled (possible, but definitely cramped). : )

    Of course, that's the stuff I have on hand already. It's probably worth a shopping trip. Notebook paper is a lot cheaper than printer cartridges!

  8. For anyone interested in using Incomptech's simple asymetric graph generator to make two column, Gregg-ruled A5 pages (say for your own discbound steno book):

    – A4 landscape (29.7 x 21 cm)

    – Grid line weight normal: .15

    – Grid line weight bold: .7

    – Horizontal size: 7.425 cm

    – Bold every 1 line

    This creates four columns on an A4 landscape page, so when I cut the paper down to portrait A5, I get the two steno columns that are a little under three inches. It was mainly an experiment. I find the columns rather cramped, so I'm not sure if I'll continue using them. If you're using different paper dimensions, you can play around with values.

    – Vertical size: .209 cm

    – Bold every 4 lines

    Had to monkey with this for a while, but .209 cm vertical spacing will give you 4 lighter penmanship guidelines per bolder writing line, and 3 writing lines per inch. The grid line weight might throw this off by fractions of a mm, but I think it's good enough.

    – Color: Hex # b3b3b3

    I like gray lines so they don't interfere with seeing black ink. I might even make it lighter next time.

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