Print Gridlines on a Blank / Empty Sheet in Excel & Google Sheets

In this tutorial, you will learn how to print gridlines on a blank sheet in Excel and Google Sheets.

 

print gridlines blank cells

 

Print Gridlines on a Blank Sheet

By default, Excel won’t print anything if the sheet is completely blank. If you go to File > Print (or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + P), you’ll see that there is no print preview, as Excel considers a sheet without any value a blank sheet.

 

print preview blank sheet

 

To print gridlines on an empty sheet, follow these steps:

  1. In the Ribbon, go to Page Layout > Page Setup (in the bottom right corner of the Page Setup section).

 

page layout setup

 

  1. In the Page Setup window, go to the Sheet tab, check Gridlines in the Print section, and click OK.

 

page setup gridlines

 

  1. Now you need to set up a print area. To do this, select a range of cells and in the Ribbon, go to Page Layout > Print Area > Set Print Area.

 

set print area

 

  1. Finally, if you go again to File > Print, you’ll see in Print Preview that the selected area will be printed with gridlines.

 

print gridlines blank cells

 

  1. If you populate some cells in the selected print area, again all cells (blank and populated) will be printed with gridlines.

 

print gridlines blank and populated cells

 

Print Gridlines on a Blank Sheet in Google Sheets

If you want to print the gridline on a blank sheet in Google Sheets, follow these steps:

  1. Select a range of cells for which you want to print gridlines (here, A1:E10).

 

google sheets select print area

 

  1. In the menu, go to File > Print (or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + P).

 

google sheets print

 

  1. In the Print options section on the right side, choose Selected cells (A1:E10) under Print, expand Formatting and check Show gridlines, and click Next.

 

google sheets print gridlines

 

As a result, you can see in the print preview, that gridlines will be printed, although the selected cells are blank.

 

google sheets print gridlines 2