Printable Guitar Tab Paper
Blank six-line tablature paper for guitar. Each line is a string, the numbers you write on them are frets — the notation almost every guitarist learns first, and still the fastest way to write down a riff by hand.
- Free, no signup
- Exact-scale vector PDF
- Letter, A4, Legal & more
- Commercial use OK
Sets the staff space; every other proportion follows from it.
0 leaves the staves open.
36pt is half an inch — safe on virtually every printer.
Free, no signup. Print at 100% scale (not “fit to page”) so the measurements come out exact.
Live preview — US Letter (8.5 × 11"), portrait · updates as you change any setting.
How tablature is laid out
The six lines represent the six strings, with the highest-pitched string (high E) on top and the lowest (low E) at the bottom. That's the opposite of how the strings sit when you look down at the fretboard, which trips up nearly every beginner — the top line is the string closest to the floor. A number on a line is the fret to press on that string; a zero means play it open.
Line spacing on tab paper
Tab staves are ruled further apart than standard music staves for a practical reason: you're writing digits between the lines, not note heads on them. Two-digit fret numbers above the twelfth fret need real room. The spacing here is set proportionally wider than a music staff, and increasing the size setting gives you more space again if you write large or are notating high positions.
Writing readable tab by hand
Keep vertically aligned notes truly vertical — that's how chords are distinguished from single notes. Use bar lines to keep your place. And write the rhythm above the staff, or use the combined staff-and-tab paper instead: plain tab carries pitch but no timing, which is the format's one real weakness and the reason published tab almost always pairs it with a standard staff.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many lines does guitar tab have?
Six — one for each string. The top line is the high E string and the bottom line is the low E, which is the reverse of how the strings appear when you look down at the guitar.
Do the numbers mean frets or fingers?
Frets. A 5 on the third line means press the third string at the fifth fret. A 0 means play that string open. Finger numbers appear in standard notation and chord diagrams, not in tab.
How do I write rhythm in tablature?
Plain tab doesn't encode rhythm. Either write note-value stems and beams beneath the staff, or use the combined guitar tab and staff paper on this site, which pairs each tab stave with a standard music staff above it.
Can I use this for 7 or 8 string guitar?
Use the bass tab paper on this site and set the string count to 7 or 8 — it takes any number of strings from 4 upward, so it covers extended-range guitars as well as bass.
Printing Tips
- Print at 100% scale.Turn off “fit to page” and “shrink oversized pages” — otherwise your printer rescales the sheet and the measurements no longer match.
- Match the paper size. Choose the same size here as the paper in your tray. Printing a Letter PDF on A4 (or the reverse) scales it.
- Lighter lines print better. A light grey or blue guides your work without competing with it — and it uses far less ink.
- Use heavier paper for wet media. 100gsm and up for fountain pens and markers; standard copier paper is fine for pencil.