Tracing worksheet generator
Any words, dotted along the middle of every stroke, on the lines children learn on.
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Example
Kindergarten sight words “the, and, see, can, you” in US print, on two Letter pages
A kindergarten teacher sends home this week’s five sight words, typed one per line: the, and, see, can, you. Settings: US print (modern manuscript), Dotted, “Headline, dashed midline, baseline”, Letter size Large, 2 rows each, repeat along the row, an empty row after, first word dark as the model, name and date, US Letter.
- Large puts the headline 19 mm (about ¾ in) above the baseline; at that size a Letter page holds 7 rows under the Name and Date line.
- Each word fills its row: “the” and “see” 4 times, “and”, “can” and “you” 3 times. On a word’s first row the first copy is solid, to copy; the rest are dots along each stroke.
- 5 words × (2 rows + 1 empty) is 15 rows, so the sheet runs to two pages of 7; “see” starts at the foot of page 1, and the last empty row, which would not fit, is left off.
| Letter size | Headline above baseline | Rows on a Letter page | “the” per row | “and” per row |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Extra large | 25.4 mm (1 in) | 5 | 3 | 2 |
| Large | 19 mm (¾ in) | 7 | 4 | 3 |
| Medium | 15.9 mm (⅝ in) | 8 | 5 | 4 |
| Small | 12.7 mm (½ in) | 10 | 6 | 5 |
tracing-worksheet.pdf, two pages. For one page instead, choose 1 row each and no empty row: the five words take 5 rows, and “Fill the page” adds “the” and “and” again to fill the 7.
How it works
- Type what to practise, one word or sentence to a line: letters, spelling words, a short sentence.
- Pick the handwriting your school teaches and the lines to print it on.
- Choose dotted, pale or hollow letters and a size for the age.
- Download the PDF and print it at 100 %.
Frequently asked questions
- Where do the dots come from?
- From the middle of each stroke of the letter, which is the path a pencil takes. Many tracing sheets dash the outline instead, which gives two rows of dots with a gap between them; here the dots run where the child's pencil should go, evenly spaced, with one on each end of every stroke.
- Which handwriting is this?
- The school models themselves: Playwrite, drawn by the type foundry TypeTogether from the primary-school guidelines of each country — US print and cursive, UK print and joined, the German Grundschrift and Ausgangsschriften, French, Italian, Spanish and Brazilian hands — and Andika, a literacy font from SIL, for simple ball-and-stick print. All are under the SIL Open Font License.
- Does cursive join up?
- Yes. The joined models connect their letters the way they are taught, including the different joins after letters like o and w, because the font itself chooses the joining form of each letter.
- What do the lines mean?
- The American primary line has a solid headline, a dashed midline for the height of small letters and a solid baseline. Four lines with a red baseline is the ruling used in Germany, Turkey and English lessons in Japan; Seyes is the French notebook ruling. The letters are sized to the lines, not the other way round.
- How big should the letters be?
- Extra large (an inch from baseline to headline) for children forming their first letters, large for kindergarten and first grade, medium for second and third grade, small for older children and adults practising a hand.
- Can I make a name tracing sheet?
- Yes: type the name on its own line. With “Repeat each word along the row” it is written as many times as fit, the first copy dark as the model; with “Fill the page” it goes round again until the page is full. A long name at Extra large makes the whole sheet a little smaller rather than running off the edge.
- Is it free, and is anything uploaded?
- It is free, and nothing is uploaded: the sheet is drawn in your browser. The free plan prints a small line of text at the foot of the last page.