Coming soon · for Illustrator
Write the grid.
Illustrator
draws it.
GridGod draws the grid you describe — in words, not in a dialog box. Write one line:
$col = ~ | 1.6% | then | $col*11 ~ | (v, 5% | ~ | 5%)…and get twelve columns with proportional gutters and 5% margins. The same line works on a business card and on a forty-metre wall.
Coming soon. We'll email you the day it ships, nothing else.
Paid tool, free 7-day trial once it ships — included in the Wizard plan after that. See Wizard pricing →
Requires Adobe Illustrator · Windows or macOS.
Drag them by hand,
or fill in a dialog box.
Illustrator gives you two ways to build a grid. Drag guides out of the rulers one at a time and nudge them until the numbers look right, or open a dialog that only understands columns and rows — a count, a gutter, and nothing else. Neither one knows what a margin is, neither one holds when the artboard changes size, and neither one survives being reopened next year.
So the grids that actually get drawn are the ones the dialog can express. Isometric at a true 2:1 pixel ratio, hexagons, rays from a vanishing point sitting off the artboard, one continuous grid running across eight printed panels so the seams line up when they're installed — those get built by hand, or they don't get built.
GridGod gives you a third way: describe the grid and it draws it.
$col = ~ | 1.6% | then | $col*11 ~ | (v, 5% | ~ | 5%)Twelve columns, proportional gutters, 5% margins — on a business card and on a forty-metre wall, from the same line.
One line of text.
Every grid you've drawn.
- Grids You Write
- Columns, rows, baselines, margins, bleed — one line of text. | places a guide, ~ splits what is left, * repeats until the space runs out, $name is shorthand, and [ ] is a group with its own context and its own margins. Units: px, pt, mm, cm, in, picas, 5p6, and percentages. Every line is a separate grid, so columns and rows live together.
- Quick Bar
- Six buttons for the six guides you place fifty times a day — the four edges and both centre lines. No setup, no dialog.
- Beyond Straight Lines
- Seven isometric projections, including true 2:1 pixel isometric where the vertical rhythm lands on whole pixels — the thing game artists actually mean by "isometric". Hexagons sitting on a point or a flat side. Rays from a vanishing point you can place outside the artboard, which is where vanishing points usually belong.
- 35 Grids Built In
- Rule of thirds, golden section, root 2, Fibonacci. The Van de Graaf canon and Tschichold's golden canon. Mirrored book spreads. Modular field grids. Baselines at 12pt, 14pt and 24px. Bleed, trim and safe area. Social safe, broadcast title safe, the zone a roll-up stand hides, the frame margin on a billboard.
- Any Size, Honestly
- Proportional grids are tested against 16 real formats, from a 16px favicon to a 40-metre wall wrap. Grids tied to real measurements say so when they do not fit, instead of drawing something wrong: "The grid is wider than the space it has (1200pt of 595pt)."
- Panels That Must Line Up
- One switch computes the grid once across every artboard and cuts it down to each. Eight printed panels keep a single rhythm across the seams, whether or not the module divides the panel width — the case that quietly ruins large-format installs.
- Mirrored Spreads Without Typing Twice
- Both pages get the narrow margin at the spine. Groups carry their own margins, so the mirror is structural, not two lines you hope match. [ | ~ | (v, 15mm | ~ | 25mm) ] [ | ~ | (v, 25mm | ~ | 15mm) ]
- The Grid Lives In The Document
- Saved into the .ai file, not in a preferences folder that follows you around. Open the document next year, press one button, and the grid comes back ready to edit. Send the file to a colleague and the grid travels with it.
- Errors That Tell You What To Change
- Not "invalid grid". The number and the limit, every time: "A repeat of 50,000,000 is too large (limit 10,000)." "Those margins leave no room for the grid."
The preview is live and carries the actual numbers — the picture and the measurement, "12 cols · 65pt / 20pt gap", in the document's own units, before anything touches the artboard.
What it does not do yet
- No scale factor for working at 1:10 on large-format artwork.
- No capturing blocks or $name[index] from the original grid notation.
- Not code-signed yet, so testers install it with PlayerDebugMode.
Every layout that has to
hold at any size.
Books & Editorial Spreads
The Van de Graaf canon on a left page and its mirror on the right, narrow margin at the spine on both, baseline sitting under the columns. One line each, not two you hope match — and the grid is still in the file at the next revision.
Large-Format & Environmental
Eight panels of a wall wrap, computed as one grid and cut down to each artboard, so the rhythm survives the seams once it is installed. Bleed, trim and the zone a roll-up stand hides, all drawn rather than remembered.
Isometric & Game Art
True 2:1 pixel isometric, where the vertical rhythm lands on whole pixels instead of somewhere between two of them — plus hexagons on a point or a flat side, and rays from a vanishing point parked well off the artboard.
Stop dragging guides one at a time.
GridGod is coming soon. Same deal as every MotionPotion plugin: a free 7-day trial once it's live, then included in the Wizard plan — no separate purchase. One account signs you into all of them; the trial itself is just per plugin.
See Wizard pricing →