Manuscript paper to print
Manuscript paper is five-line staves with space between them. These are set at a 7 mm staff, the size most printed music uses, with a 10 mm gap under each one so you can pencil in lyrics, chord names or fingering without crowding the notes. Print a page or a whole pad.
Customise colours
One page at the size you choose. The rules are 0.6 pt and mid grey, so they print clearly and sit behind your handwriting. The same engine draws every page of a bound journal in our studio.
Want the whole book?
This makes one page. Sign up to turn it into a full journal or notebook for Amazon KDP: dozens of pages at any trim, as a print-ready PDF. We carry your page style into the studio.
Build the full bookFree to build · pay once to export
Preview
The page as it prints. It redraws as you change a setting.
How to use manuscript paper
Five-line staves with space under each one. The lines and the gaps between them are the pitches; what you write under the stave is everything else.
Step by step
- 1Put the clef and the key first. The clef at the left of the stave says which line is which note, so nothing on the stave means anything until it is there. The key signature goes immediately after it.
- 2Write the rhythm before the pitches. Mark the bar lines and the beats first, then place note heads on the lines and spaces. It is much easier to fix a wrong pitch than a bar that does not add up.
- 3Use the gap under the stave. Lyrics, chord names and fingering live there, which is why the staves are spaced rather than stacked. One line of words per stave keeps it readable.
- Why a 7 mm stave
- It is the size most printed music is set at, so a note head drawn by hand is the size your eye already expects and a ledger line above the stave still has room.
- Good for
- Composing, theory homework, arranging and transcribing by ear.
Making a whole journal?
This page makes one sheet. To publish a journal, the journal maker binds up to 400 pages of this ruling at any trim, with the gutter sized for the page count, as a print-ready 300 DPI interior and a wraparound cover. Set it up once, export any size.
More printable pages
Questions
- Is this printable manuscript paper free to print?
- Yes. Print the page above or save it as a PDF, at no cost and with no sign-up. It is free for classroom, home and personal use.
- What size does the printable manuscript paper print at?
- US Letter, 8.5 by 11 inches, which also fits A4 at the printer’s fit-to-page setting. The rules are 0.6 pt in mid grey, so they print clearly on any printer.
- Can I make a whole journal to sell?
- Yes. The free tool makes one page. Publisher Studio binds up to 400 pages of the same ruling or guided page at any standard trim, with a title page and the gutter sized for the page count, as a print-ready 300 DPI interior and a wraparound cover.