
Old graph paper - ingve
http://leancrew.com/all-this/2015/08/old-graph-paper/
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lfowles
My favorite kind of graph paper is engineering paper. The grid is printed on
the back, so when scanned it isn't visible.

What it looks like in person:
[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Engineer...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Engineering-
pad-simulation.png)

What it looks like scanned:
[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_wP_s3WyQd4A/S-s4B-sm4oI/AAAAAAAAAe...](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_wP_s3WyQd4A/S-s4B-sm4oI/AAAAAAAAAek/8qWpkCf2xnA/s1600/scan0009.jpg)

~~~
spike021
Is this how all engineering paper is (or pads)? Took a quick look on Amazon
and only one had the same or similar pattern.

What's a good brand?

~~~
niels_olson
I have a few sheets of K&E from my grandfather's, they're fantastic. I'm
thinking about framing one.

My go-to is Staedtler, simply because it's available. My dad still uses a lot
of National. I've also used Ampad, which I find to be a little thin, and the
fibers are course: tends to gouge.

~~~
FireBeyond
I used to use the Staedtler, for that reason. Is very nice. But the Rhodia
pads, as mentioned below, are exquisite.

~~~
niels_olson
I'm unclear. I use bound Leuchtturm1917 books for note taking these days, and
I used to use moleskine. I have a number of others, including a Rhodia and
white lines. I am not aware of Rhodia selling what I would call an engineer's
pad. Graph paper, yes. Engineer's pad, no. Can you cite a link?

~~~
FireBeyond
I apologize. I don't think I've seen an Engineer's Pad from Rhoda, for sure. I
use one of the gridded variations.

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ChuckMcM
All my notebooks are graph paper. I wanted to use them for composition but my
teachers complained. I explained quite correctly that with graph paper you had
lines for text and _bonus_ you could draw diagrams as well. How cool was that?

Apparently not cool enough, and one English teacher insisted on "wide rule"
composition notebooks, it made me ill to write in it.

One of these days I'll buy enough Eureka Lab notebooks in a single order to
have them customize them beyond the simple lab/engineering moniker. :-)

~~~
pavel_lishin
High school wasn't all fun, but one of the definite low points was breaking
out one of your new notebooks and discovering that you accidentally bought a
ten-pack of wide-rule notebooks.

I, uh, guess I was a nerd.

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oasisbob
Another fun type of graph paper is composed of triangles in a hexagonal grid,
commonly used for making isometric drawings:

[http://web.mit.edu/16.810/www/Isometric%20Drawing.pdf](http://web.mit.edu/16.810/www/Isometric%20Drawing.pdf)

For those of you looking to improve your by-hand visual communication skills,
a cool old book is _Thinking with a Pencil_ . I picked up a copy a few months
ago, and have been enjoying working through the exercises as I find time
(which also includes isometric techniques):

[http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Pencil-Henning-
Nelms/dp/08981...](http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Pencil-Henning-
Nelms/dp/0898150523/)

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jofer
As far as the triangular grid goes, it's not common, but is very useful when
you need it.

Ternary diagrams are probably the main use for it. They're particularly common
in the geosciences as many classification schemes and solid-solution phase
diagrams are defined in terms of a mixture of three components.

I used it through most of undergrad to make ternary diagrams by hand (and had
to remember and draw in various classification schemes off the top of my
head).

It's hard to find, so I would guess that professors are still handing out
badly photocopied versions of an ancient sheet of triangular graph paper.
(Sure it would be easy to create a nice blank ternplot with grids in
$plotting_package_of_choice, but what's the fun in that??)

~~~
dragonwriter
Its very much not hard to find triangular graph paper today. It may be hard to
walk into a brick-and-mortar retail store and find it (though I wouldn't be
surprised if _campus_ bookstores in places where it was used in courses
carried it), but its quite easy to find online, both printable and pre-
printed.

So there's really no real reason anyone should be relying on "badly
photocopied versions of an ancient sheet of triangular graph paper" (that's
not saying that there aren't people doing it, just that there's no good reason
for them to be doing it.)

~~~
jofer
Good point. I'm sure I could order it from Amazon/whatever and have it here
day-after-tomorrow.

My memory of "very hard to find" meant that 15 years ago the campus bookstore
didn't carry it.

I'd still bet that badly-photocopied sheets of ternpaper are being handed out
on a daily basis in Petrology classrooms around the globe, though :)

~~~
mturmon
If you can see through the ads, this site has what you want:

[http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/trianglehex.html](http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/trianglehex.html)

Adjust line parameters as you like, and it gives you a PDF.

I used it to get a hex grid when explaining Pascal's triangle to my kid.

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dmourati
I count 10 graph paper notebooks at arms length as I type this. I use the
wonderful Japanese Maruman Mnemosyne notebooks and a fountain pen. People
think I'm nuts, maybe I am but the combination brings me great joy.

[http://www.jetpens.com/Maruman-Mnemosyne-Inspiration-
Noteboo...](http://www.jetpens.com/Maruman-Mnemosyne-Inspiration-
Notebook-A5-5.8-X-8.3-5-mm-X-5-mm-Graph-70-Sheets/pd/4078)

~~~
chromaton
Looks nice.

I'm currently working my way through a Whitelines spiral bound graph paper
notebook that I'm pretty pleased with.

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foz
This was the paper I loved for drawing Dungeons and Dragons maps in the late
70s. I loved how a #2 pencil looked on the faded blue grid. The paper has a
distinctive smell, it's just delicious.

~~~
nevster
This was my thought - the main use for me was D&D!

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Florin_Andrei
I was a fan of analytic geometry back in high school. It illuminates so many
mathematical and physical facts and propositions. It also enables you to take
a brute force approach to solving seemingly impossible problems - just graph
the thing and see where the curves intersect.

Then at some point I discovered computers and realized the true magnitude and
capabilities of numerical methods.

Anyway, plotting graphs, that will always be fun.

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smpetrey
ICYI: Downloadable Graph Papers
[http://www.printablepaper.net/](http://www.printablepaper.net/)

~~~
VLM
Impressively they even have Smith charts, for a graphical representation of RF
transmission lines.

For a closely related good time hit images.google.com and try nomogram and
nomograph for various paper and pencil based calculators.

I spent many an hour wargaming on hex grids in the olden days.

(edited to add: Oh my. I suppose its inevitable people would print on demand
hex notebooks: [http://www.lulu.com/shop/jed-mcclure/albatross-dungeon-
noteb...](http://www.lulu.com/shop/jed-mcclure/albatross-dungeon-
notebook-008/paperback/product-20420848.html) )

~~~
smpetrey
Nomogram's remind me of slide rulers!

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lbaskin
Graph paper is still commonly required for math class in Israel (at least in
elementary school). (E.g., supplies list for 2015-16 school year (word doc)
[http://www.yigalalon.org.il/uploadfiles/igalalon/%D7%A8%D7%A...](http://www.yigalalon.org.il/uploadfiles/igalalon/%D7%A8%D7%A9%D7%99%D7%9E%D7%AA%20%D7%A6%D7%99%D7%95%D7%93%20%D7%AA%D7%A9%D7%A2%D7%95.doc)).

~~~
DanBC
Please include [http://](http://) when you post URLs.

Or start very long lines with four spaces.

~~~
lbaskin
Apologies, corrected.

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robinhoodexe
I recall using a lin-log and log-log graph paper when I was 16 or so.

I suspect we HAD to use them because the school had some leftovers. We drew
graphs on them for like 20 mins and then did it on the computer (GeoGebra I
think).

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blackbeard
I have log paper and lab notebooks stashed away in case of armageddon or
something. I like paper still, a lot.

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liotier
"Specialty graph paper" \- wow... I had never suspected there was anything but
the square grid - and I'm old enough to have used it in my teenage years !

~~~
acveilleux
I learned to write on Seyès grid paper (exactly like this:
[https://wonderpens.wordpress.com/2015/04/03/how-to-use-
seyes...](https://wonderpens.wordpress.com/2015/04/03/how-to-use-seyes-or-
french-ruling-for-handwriting/)).

There's a lot more than square grid. Though all my note books are 5x5mm grid
papers these days (and usually square:
[http://rhodiapads.com/collections_orange_le_carre.php](http://rhodiapads.com/collections_orange_le_carre.php))

~~~
toothbrush
Ugh, yeah, that's what they have here in France. Gives me a headache to look
at my writing being criss-crossed by the overly heavy ruling :/

Perhaps i should sometime become un-lazy and look for some proper paper,
rediscover the joy of writing :)

My other gripe is that my fountain pen keeps drying up (i use it too
infrequently) and as a result i'm reduced to using those horrible throw-away
BICs, at least they don't dry up. Does anyone have any golden tips for keeping
fountain pens healthy?

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chipuni
Am I dating myself to say that at my right hand is a pad of graph paper? I
take my notes on it; it's wonderful to have both horizontal and vertical
guides.

~~~
buckbova
Maybe. I used them through college some 20 years ago prefered the same for
years afterwards but have switched to yellow legal pads for temp scratch
surface and [https://workflowy.com/](https://workflowy.com/) for note taking.
Not sure why, but I like the yellow.

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ams6110
I have some old lab notebooks of my dad's from the 1950s. Also the india ink
pens and lettering stencils he used to label figures in his thesis and other
papers. All very high quality stuff and must have been pretty significant
purchases for a grad student in those days.

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rootbear
I found various types of old graph paper in my father's desk when I cleaned it
out. I've kept most of it. He's an EE and a ham radio operator, so he had lots
of things to graph.

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Gracana
When I was a kid, my sister and I drew "pixel art" on graph paper. I bet we
would have had a lot of fun with the isometric grid.

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rsl7
I have a lot of this stuff from my dad, from the early 60s. Mostly various
types of log paper, and polar.

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kraig911
Anyone notice their handwriting speed and clarity goes up when writing on
graph paper?

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fernly
duckduck the phrase "generate graph paper" \-- there are many sites offering a
wide range of PDFs generated to your specs.

