Sheet Music Paper

How to use the sheet music paper

1. Choose a clef: treble, bass, grand staff for piano, or no clef for a blank staff.
2. Pick a staff size, small, medium or large, then the number of staves per page. For a grand staff the number counts systems, each with two staves joined by a brace.
3. Add bar lines if you want ready-made measures, from 0 to 8 per staff, and choose how many pages to print.
4. Keep Add title and composer lines ticked if you want to name the piece on the first page.
5. Press Download PDF or Print at 100 percent so the staff spacing stays true.

What the paper looks like

A staff is five horizontal lines, and the distance between neighboring lines is called a staff space. Notes sit on the lines or in the spaces between them. The three sizes here use spaces of 6, 7.5 and 9 points, so a medium staff is 30 points, a little over four tenths of an inch, from the top line to the bottom line. Large suits beginners and children, medium is a common size for general manuscript paper, and small fits more music on a page.

Each staff has a vertical line at both ends. Optional bar lines divide the staff into equal measures and are placed between the clef and the right end. A treble clef marks the G above middle C on the second line, and a bass clef marks the F below middle C on the fourth line. The clefs are drawn as smooth line curves by this tool, so they are simple shapes rather than engraved symbols.

A grand staff joins a treble staff over a bass staff with a vertical line and a curved brace, which is the layout used for piano music. The number you enter counts these pairs, so ten systems means twenty staves.

How many staves fit

Every staff is given a block of nine staff spaces in height, which leaves room above and below it for notes with ledger lines and for the clef. The page has about 9.5 inches of usable height, 688 points, and the title lines on the first page take 44 points of it. A medium staff therefore fits 9 staves with the title lines or 10 without them, a large staff fits 7 with them or 8 without, and a small staff fits 11 with them or 12 without. A grand staff system uses two staves, so a medium page holds 4 systems with the title lines or 5 without.

If you ask for more staves than fit, the tool tells you the maximum for the chosen size instead of squeezing the lines together. Staves are spread evenly down the page. All pages in a print are identical apart from the optional title lines, which only appear on page one.

Printing notes

Print at 100 percent or Actual size. Shrink to fit changes the staff spacing and makes the paper look different from the preview. Most printers cannot print within about a quarter inch of the edge, and the staves stay inside a half inch margin for that reason. The PDF is made in your browser and nothing is uploaded. For other printable paper, see the graph paper generator.

Assumptions and limits

• The page is US Letter in portrait. Landscape pages, other paper sizes and tablature are not offered.
• Staff spaces are 6, 7.5 and 9 points for small, medium and large. Printed size is exact only at 100 percent.
• Clefs are simple curves drawn by the tool, not engraved music symbols, and they are placed at the start of every staff when a clef is chosen.
• Up to 20 identical pages can be printed at once. The number of staves is limited by the room each staff needs.

Formulas reviewed October 10, 2026. See the calculation methodology for how SumPanda rounds, tests and sources its formulas.

Frequently asked questions