Grid method for drawing

What the tool actually draws

Grid overlay opens at 5 rows and 5 columns. Rows and columns each run from 1 to 20. The line color starts at white. Opacity starts at 100% and can drop to 10% in steps of 10. Line width starts at 0.1 and stops at 2. That number is a percent of the longer side of the photo. At 1, the stroke is 1% of the longer side. At 2, it is 2%.

The preview may shrink the picture so it fits a 1200 pixel box. The file does not. Export PNG is named grid_photo_ plus a timestamp, and the pixel width and height are the photo’s, after a 90 degree rotate swaps them. A 4000×3000 photo stays 4000×3000 with lines on it.

Pick a count you will draw again

Set the line so you can see the photo

1. Upload the photo. The button says Upload Photo. JPEG, PNG, and WebP are the formats the page names. The file stays in the tab.
2. Set rows and columns to the count you will rule on the paper. Do this before you care about color.
3. If the photo is light, leave the line white or pick a dark color. If the line disappears, raise Line Width. The on-screen percent is a slider position, not the stroke percent. The stroke percent is the 0.1 to 2 value.
4. Drop Opacity if the line hides an edge you need to copy. 100% is a solid stroke. 10% is the minimum.
5. Press Export PNG. Print that file, or keep it on a screen beside the paper. The tool does not send it to a printer.

Same count, bigger paper

Enlarging is not a second tool. The old enlarge page now lands here. You enlarge by drawing the same map at a larger cell size. Adding rows to “make it bigger” changes the map. The photo cell and the paper cell no longer hold the same piece of the picture.

Measure the paper, divide by the column count, and divide by the row count. A 4 column by 6 row overlay on a 20 cm by 30 cm sheet is a 5 cm by 5 cm cell. The same overlay on a 40 cm by 60 cm sheet is a 10 cm by 10 cm cell. An 8 by 8 overlay on a 24 cm square is a 3 cm cell. Those are arithmetic, not a print preset in the tool.

Keep a photo that is not square as the same count on both surfaces. 4 across and 6 down on the PNG, 4 across and 6 down on the paper. The paper cells can be square even when the photo is not, or you can match the photo’s cell shape. Either way the count matches. The tool will not compute this. It never asks for centimeters.

Copy one cell, then the next

1. Number the cells the same way on both surfaces. Left to right, top to bottom is enough. The PNG has no numbers on it.
2. Copy the angles that hit the cell edges first. Those are the landmarks. Fill the middle after the landmarks agree.
3. If a cell is wrong, fix that cell. Do not add a row in the tool and hope the paper still matches. Change the paper only if you export a new count and rule the paper again.
4. The export is lines on the photo. It is not a tracing, not a projector, and not a vector path you can restyle later.

Questions