About Plotpicture
A free tool for maths teachers, tutors and parents who want coordinate graphing mystery pictures of their own: draw a picture once and get the point list, the grid, the answer key and 3 difficulty versions, every point checked.
Why we made it
Mystery pictures are one of the few plotting tasks students ask to do again. The picture is the reward, and it is also the check: a wrong point shows up as a wrong line. The trouble is supply. Ready made sets run out, the free ones repeat the same few characters, and building a list by hand means clicking every grid point and copying coordinates into a document, then checking them again for the version with negative numbers.
Plotpicture does that part. You draw, or trace over an image of your own, or start from one of our 24 starter pictures. The site keeps the points on the grid, writes them out in plotting order with Lift pen between shapes, and makes 3 versions from the same drawing: whole numbers in the first quadrant, whole numbers in all four, and decimals or fractions. The worksheets print on A4 or US Letter with grid lines drawn as vectors, so they stay sharp.
How we build it
Every rule the worksheets follow is written out on how it works, with a worked example. Nothing is rounded: a point that does not fit a version is named, and you decide what to do about it. The same drawing and settings always give the same worksheet. The site runs entirely in your browser; there is no account and no server that sees your drawings.
What it is not
- Not a marketplace. There are no licensed characters, and the starter pictures were drawn for this site.
- Not an automatic tracer. An image you load is a faint guide; you draw over it, and it never prints.
- Not a course. The guides share what works in a lesson; your judgement about your class comes first.
- Not an account. Your pictures stay in this browser, with a backup file when you want one.
On a phone or offline
After one visit the maker works with no connection. On an iPhone or iPad, open the site in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen.
It then opens from the home screen like an app, with your pictures where you left them.
Contact
Questions, ideas and reports of a worksheet that breaks one of the stated rules go to [email protected]. A backup file of the picture helps us see exactly what you see. Start on the mystery picture maker.
Plotpicture is not affiliated with any publisher, curriculum body or teacher marketplace.