Printable Hexagonal Paper

What is hexagonal paper?

Hexagonal paper, also called hex paper or hex grid paper, is covered with regular hexagons that fit together like a honeycomb, with no gaps between them. Every hexagon touches six neighbors, and the center of each neighbor is the same distance away.

That even spacing is what a square grid cannot offer. On graph paper, a diagonal neighbor is about 41% farther away than a side neighbor. On a hex grid, a step in any of the six directions covers the same distance, which is why hexagons are used for maps and for anything that spreads evenly in all directions.

Specifications

The size of a hexagon is measured across its flat sides, the way game maps and most hex paper are labeled. The hexagons stand on a point ("pointy top"), and the grid runs to the edge of the sheet.

Hexagonal paper for organic chemistry

In skeletal formulas, a six-membered carbon ring such as benzene or cyclohexane is drawn as a regular hexagon, and chains are drawn as zigzags with angles of about 120°. Those are exactly the shapes and angles a hex grid gives you. Tracing along the printed lines keeps rings the same size, bonds the same length and fused rings such as naphthalene properly lined up.

The 1/2 inch sheet suits most coursework: its 7.3mm sides are long enough to add a double bond inside a ring and to write a substituent such as OH or CH₃ at a corner. Draw the structure in pen and leave the grid in the background, or print the light gray version if you plan to photocopy or scan your work.

Hex grid paper for tabletop games and maps

Role-playing games, wargames and board game prototypes use hex maps because movement costs the same in every direction, and distances can be counted in hexes without measuring.

• Battle maps: the 1 inch sheet fits standard 25mm (1 inch) miniature bases, one figure per hexagon.
• Regional and world maps: the 1/2 inch sheet gives about 17 by 25 hexagons on a Letter page. Decide what one hexagon stands for, for example 6 miles, and note the scale in a corner.
• Number the hexagons by column and row (0101, 0102 and so on) if you want to keep a key of locations on a separate sheet.
• For a larger map, print several sheets, trim the blank printer margin along one edge and tape them together on the back.

Patterns, quilting and design

Hexagons tile a surface with no leftover space, so the same sheet works for planning anything built from hexagonal pieces: English paper piecing quilts such as a "grandmother’s flower garden", tile and mosaic layouts, beadwork, crochet motifs and honeycomb shelving.

Color a few hexagons to test a pattern before you cut fabric or order tiles. Because the PDF is true size, the 1 inch sheet can also serve as a cutting guide for 1 inch hexagon templates, measured across the flat sides.

How to print it

Print at 100% scale ("Actual size"), so that the hexagons measure exactly 1/2 inch or 1 inch across. "Fit to page" would shrink them by a few percent.

The sheets are drawn with a point at the top of each hexagon. Many game maps use the other orientation, with a flat side on top: for that, turn the printed sheet sideways and use it in landscape. The grid is the same, only rotated by 90°.