Loom beading graph paper
A straight rectangular grid for bead loom work, where beads sit in aligned rows and columns rather than offset.
Opens with these settings already loaded. Change anything you like, then download as PDF, PNG or SVG.
Loom work is a square grid, peyote is not
This is the distinction that sends people to the wrong sheet. On a bead loom, each bead sits between two warp threads and every bead in a row lines up with the bead above it, which gives a straight rectangular grid. Peyote and brick stitch offset every other row by half a bead, because that is physically how the beads nest. Charting loom work on peyote paper will misplace every second row, and the error compounds across the width of the piece rather than staying local.
Beads are wider than they are tall
A seed bead is a slightly flattened doughnut, so it is wider across than it is deep through the hole. For a size 11/0 round seed bead the ratio runs around 0.85, which is why the cells here are wider than they are tall rather than square. If you chart on square cells your design comes out compressed vertically once it is woven, in the same way a knitting chart does. The proportion is adjustable, so match it to the bead you are actually stringing.
Count your warps before you start
The number of columns in your chart is the number of beads across, and a loom needs one more warp thread than that. Set the loom up for the finished width before you chart, because adding a warp thread partway through is far more painful than redrawing a column. Design symmetrically around a center column if the piece is a cuff or a strap, since an even bead count leaves no true center and small asymmetries are very visible on a narrow band.
Printing it accurately
This only measures correctly if your printer doesn't rescale the page. In the print dialog set Scale: 100%, not "Fit to page" or "Shrink oversized pages". If you're not sure it worked, print the calibration page, measure the ruler on it with a real ruler, and it will tell you exactly what your printer is doing to the page.