Creating Dot Grid pages is a common task for planner creators, and Affinity Publisher provides powerful tools to make this process fast and efficient. In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through creating a Dot Grid page from scratch, using Custom Grids, Symbols, and the Move / Duplicate feature.

Step 1: Set Up Your Page

Start by setting up your document:

• Open Affinity Publisher and create a new A4 page
• Set the colour format to RGB, with no margins or bleed
• Now we’re ready to add our Custom Grid
  

Step 2: Create a Custom Grid

Though not essential, using a Custom Grid can help ensure your dots are perfectly aligned:

1. Go to View > Grid and Axis Manager
2. Set the spacing to 5 mm - a common size for planner dot grids
3. Click the Burger Menu next to the preset dropdown and select Create Preset to save this setup for future use
4. Name your preset something relevant, like "5 mm Dot Grid"
5. In the Preset Manager, you can create a custom category, such as “Planner Pages”, to keep your presets organized
   

Step 3: Create Your First Dot

Now it's time to create the first Dot:

1. Select the Rounded Rectangle Tool and, while holding the Shift key, draw a 1 mm shape
2. The shape has no border and a fill colour of your choice - I used a Global Colour for ease of updating
3. With the dot selected, use StudioLink and switch to the Designer Persona using the button on the top toolbar
4. In the Layers Panel, name your Layer “Dot” and create a Symbol from it - this will allow us to easily duplicate and customise the Dots later
   

Step 4: Duplicate the Dots

Using the Move Duplicate feature, we’ll now duplicate the dot across the page:

1. Select the Dot, press Enter, and in the Move / Duplicate dialog
   
   1. Set the horizontal distance to 5 mm
   2. Put a tick in the Duplicate option
   3. Choose 40 copies - this will create one full row of Dots
   4. Group the Dots
   5. Repeat the duplication process vertically
      
      1. This time setting the distance to 5 mm
      2. Duplicating it 58 times
         

In just two steps, you’ll have a complete page with 2,320 dots!

Step 5: Add a Background

Many digital planners are used with dark mode or coloured backgrounds in apps such as GoodNotes, and it’s easy to build in the option to easily change the background colour:

1. Select the Rectangle Tool and draw a shape that covers the entire page
2. Move this Rectangle behind the Dot Grid and set its colour to a colour of your choice
3. Make the Dots Symbol a contrasting colour
   

Step 6: Customize Your Dot Grid

Now that the grid is in place, let’s explore a few ways to customise it:

1. Change Colours: If you want to change the Dot or background colours, use Global Colours - this allows you to adjust the colour of every instance of the Dot at once
2. Change Dot Shape: Since the Dot is a Symbol, you can adjust the shape - I used the Shape radius controls and changed it from a Circle to a Rounded Rectangle
3. Advanced Customization: Because the Dot is a Symbol you are able to make radical changes to that Symbol and have those changes ripple through to all the instances of the Symbol - I created a Cross using the original Rounded Rectangle as a starting point
   

Step 7: Create an A5 Version

If you need an A5 Dot Grid page, follow the same steps but with an A5 document:

1. For speed I copied and pasted the Dot Symbol from the A4 version into the new A5 page
2. Use the same Move / Duplicate process to create a row of 28 Dots horizontally
3. Group those 28 Dots to organize the Layers Panel
4. Finally use the Move / Duplicate feature to create 40 rows vertically
   

Conclusion

By using Affinity Publisher’s Move / Duplicate feature, Symbols, and Custom Grids, you can create precise and reusable Dot Grid pages in just a few steps. Whether you're designing for digital planners or notebooks, these techniques will streamline your workflow and give you full control over your Dot Grids.

If you enjoyed this tutorial and want more tips and tricks, be sure to check out my free training at ElaineGiles.com/VIP. Don’t forget to subscribe and hit the notification bell so you never miss a new tutorial.

If you have any specific tutorial requests, feel free to reach out - I’d love to hear from you!

Thanks for reading and watching, and see you next time!