Printable Cornell notes
Cue column, note area and a summary band, in the standard proportions.
Runs entirely in this tab. Nothing is uploaded.
Paper
Orientation
Writing lines
24
Cue column width
55 mm
Print at 100% — “fit to page” rescales the sheet and a 5 mm grid stops being 5 mm. Every template already keeps clear of the margin no printer can reach.
Building your sheet…
About this cornell notes
Drawn as vector geometry at real-world dimensions, so it prints at exactly the size shown on A4, A5, A3, US Letter, US Legal. Print at 100% rather than “fit to page” — that setting rescales the sheet and the measurements stop being the measurements.
You can change:
- Writing lines — 0 to 40, 24 by default
- Cue column width — 25 to 70 mm, 55 mm by default
Free, unwatermarked and yours to use for anything, including in a classroom or in something you sell.
Frequently asked questions
How is the Cornell method meant to be used?+
Take notes in the wide right-hand area during the lesson. Afterwards, write questions or keywords in the narrow cue column beside them. To revise, cover the notes and try to answer your own cues from memory. The band at the foot is for a summary written after the fact, in your own words — that last step is the one people skip and the one that does most of the work.
How wide should the cue column be?+
55mm by default, which is a bit over a quarter of the writable width of an A4 sheet. The classic Cornell layout uses a 2.5 inch column on US Letter — set 65mm for the nearest equivalent. Narrower than about 35mm and there is no room for a real question, only a word.
Why does the summary band take a fifth of the page?+
Because the proportions are the method rather than a style choice. A summary band that is only a line or two invites a line or two, and the point of the exercise is to compress the whole page into a few sentences. Getting these proportions wrong turns it into a page with lines on it.
More printables to go with cornell notes
- Graph paperSquare grid at any spacing, with an optional heavier line every n squares.
- Dot gridThe bullet-journal ruling: dots instead of lines, at your spacing.
- Isometric paperTriangular grid at 30°, for drawing objects in 3D without perspective.
- Lined paperRuled lines at any spacing, with or without a margin rule.
- Music manuscript paperBlank staves, five lines each, at a spacing that suits your hand.
- Handwriting practiceFour-line guides — baseline, midline, ascender and descender.
Or see all 16 printable templates.