How to Get Rid of Print Lines in Excel

What this does

Gridlines are the light cell boundaries visible on screen. They do not print by default. Page Layout ▸ Gridlines ▸ Print tells Excel to include them on paper or PDF; borders are different because they are explicit formatting that always prints when applied. The same idea underpins a lot of everyday Excel work, so the few minutes spent getting it right here pay back across every sheet you build afterwards. Treat it as a pattern, not a one-off, and it stops being something you look up and starts being something you reach for. For “get rid of print lines in excel”, the reliable version is a short checking loop, not just the first command that appears to work. Run it on a deliberately small range first, watch how the affected cells change, and only then apply the same setup to the full sheet. When this is a ribbon command, the selection matters more than the button: confirm the range, apply the command, then spot-check the output before saving. That is what makes a workspace setting that makes a big sheet comfortable to navigate useful in real work: repeatable, auditable, and not dependent on memory or luck.

A worked example

A checklist prints as plain text with no cell boundaries. Tick Page Layout ▸ Gridlines ▸ Print, open Print Preview, and the row and column grid appears around each cell without adding manual borders. Printed gridlines make working sheets, checklists and review copies readable without manually formatting every cell. When the result is not what you expected, undo straight away rather than repairing it by hand — undo restores the sheet exactly, while manual fixes tend to leave small inconsistencies behind that surface later.

In Google Sheets

This is a command rather than a formula, so there is no syntax to carry over. Google Sheets arranges its commands in menus across the top instead of a ribbon, names some of them differently and does not have every Excel command — look for the equivalent in the Sheets menus or its help before assuming the steps match. Keep this page bookmarked for the next time the same question comes up. Better still, repeat the steps once in your own workbook — doing it yourself is what turns a copied answer into something you remember. The short version of “get rid of print lines in excel”: the answer is at the top of this page, and the sections above explain why each step matters, so a variation of the problem does not stump you. Try it once on a copy of a real file and the steps stick far better than re-reading them.

Common mistakes

• Turning on View gridlines and expecting them to print.
• Using gridlines when a report needs heavier custom borders.
• Forgetting that gridlines may be faint on some printers.
• Printing without previewing page scaling.

Frequently asked questions