School Science/Graticule slides

A graticule slide is a microscope slide that contains a mm grid of lines. They allow the size of objects seen under magnification to be measured. A simple version of a graticule slide can be made by anyone with access to a drawing program. Something as simple as the drawing tools that come with Microsoft Word will do (see instructions below).

Fig. 1 vector rasterized grid (low quality)

Once there is a suitable grid on the computer [you could download the one to the side; see figure 1], a test print should be produced. The size of the printed square should be measured and the grid should be resized until a cm2 grid is printed. This grid can now be printed on photocopiable OHP sheets.

The OHP sheets can be glued to a glass slide with clear nail varnish.

Instructions to create a grid
Use of Word drawing tools (in italics)


 * 1) In Word, go to view, toolbars. and make sure that 'Drawing' is ticked. Then select a line from the drawing tool pallet. [it is a picture of a line next to 'AutoShapes']
 * 2) Draw a single straight, vertical line. Copy and paste the line 9 times.
 * 3) Use the arrow keys on the keyboard to line up the lines so that you have 10 evenly spaced lines.
 * 4) Select all ten lines at once by holding down the shift key and left clicking on each line in turn.
 * 5) Go to Draw then Group, to group all ten lines into a single object.
 * 6) Copy then paste the lines then go to 'Draw' then 'Rotate or flip' and rotate by 90&deg;
 * 7) Line up the vertical and horizontal lines and by using the corner tabs resize them until there is a perfect grid without any overhangs. Then select both sets of lines and group them together into one object.You should now have a square grid.