How to Use pairPaint as an Online Whiteboard with Graph Paper and Shapes

A paint app that doubles as a whiteboard

Most online whiteboards are built for business meetings — sticky notes, timers, templates you will never use. Teachers need something simpler: a big blank surface, a pen that works, and paper that looks like the real thing. That is exactly what pairPaint becomes when you switch on its paper backgrounds. It is a genuine online whiteboard for teaching, hiding inside a paint app kids already love.

The combination is what makes it work. You get the freeform feel of drawing — 24 brushes, a highlighter, an eraser — plus the structure of real classroom paper and precise vector shapes. Sketch a quick diagram freehand, then drop in a perfect circle or arrow when precision matters. For teachers hunting for the best paint app to teach on, that mix of loose and precise is the whole game.

Turning on graph paper (and ruled, dot and numbered)

Every page in pairPaint can have its own paper background. Open page settings and pick graph paper — instantly your canvas becomes a proper grid, ready for coordinate plotting, geometry sketches and neatly aligned working. Prefer something else? Ruled paper for written working, dot-grid for diagrams, numbered paper for sequences, or plain paper for free sketching. Each in any color you like.

The setting is per page, which matters more than it sounds. A single drawing can hold a graph-paper page for plotting, a ruled page for the written solution, and a plain page for a free sketch — flip between them like a notebook. When you export, each page keeps its own background, so the PDF prints exactly like the notebook you designed.

The shape toolkit: 18 shapes, lines and arrows

Freehand drawing is great until you need a circle that is actually round. pairPaint includes 18 vector shapes — circles, rectangles, triangles, stars, hearts and more — each with your own fill color, outline and pattern. Drag one out, resize it, and it stays crisp at any size because it is vector, not pixels.

• Geometry in seconds — drop a triangle on graph paper, label its sides with the text tool, and you have a classroom-ready diagram. No wobbly freehand lines.
• Lines and arrows with adjustable thickness — draw axes for a coordinate grid, number lines for arithmetic, or arrows showing the steps of a process.
• Layer shapes over brushwork — sketch a rough idea with the brush, then place clean shapes on top for the final version. Students see both the thinking and the answer.
• Annotate with text — five fun fonts for labels, titles and notes, placed exactly where they belong on the diagram.

Because shapes are objects, not paint, you can select and move them after placing. Misjudged where the circle should sit? Drag it — no erasing, no redrawing. That forgiveness is what makes a digital whiteboard faster than a real one.

Classroom ideas: math, science and brainstorming

The graph grid plus shapes covers a surprising amount of real teaching:

• Coordinate plotting — draw axes with arrows on graph paper and plot points live while students call out coordinates. The grid keeps everything honest.
• Geometry — triangles, circles and rectangles with labeled sides and angles, built in seconds and saved as a PDF handout.
• Science diagrams — flow charts with arrows, labeled cell diagrams, water-cycle sketches. Shapes keep them legible; brushes add the organic bits.
• Brainstorming — switch to dot-grid or plain paper, and the whiteboard becomes a mind-mapping space where every student can add ideas at once.

And when the lesson needs printed practice to go with it, freekidworksheets.com has free printable math worksheets that pair nicely with a whiteboard session — teach the concept on the board, then hand out the practice sheets.

Teaching live: share the board with your students

A whiteboard gets twice as useful when students can draw on it too. Create a collaborative drawing room in pairPaint and share the room code — students join from Chromebooks, tablets or phones and draw on the shared board in real time. No accounts, no installs, no IT department tickets.

Run it in open mode and the whole class sketches on one board — brilliant for brainstorming or a collective coordinate-plotting exercise. Teachers keep control of the room, and every student's own canvas keeps a copy of the shared work when the session ends, so nobody loses their notes. It is genuinely one of the best apps for teacher and student drawing together precisely because the barrier is zero: open the link, type the code, draw.

Saving, printing and reusing the board

Whiteboard work is usually gone when the board is wiped. Not here. Export the finished board as a PNG for sharing in the class chat, or as a true-A4 PDF that prints exactly like the lesson you taught — graph grid, shapes, labels and all. Build a library of exported lesson boards across the term and you have ready-made revision handouts.

Because every stroke autosaves in the browser, an interrupted lesson is never lost either. Close the tab, restart the Chromebook, come back tomorrow — the board is waiting exactly as you left it.

Frequently asked questions