Free Printable Bracket Maker
Type your players and print a clean single elimination bracket with the first round filled in and the rest left blank to fill in by hand. One A4 page, every time. No sign-up, nothing uploaded, works on any printer.
Build your bracket
Round one is seeded from your list. Every later round prints as blank lines, so you can write the winners in as the tournament is played.
Round one is filled in from your list. Later rounds always print blank.
8 of 64 · bracket of 8
Paste a list straight from a spreadsheet. One name per line.
Slots on the sheet, not players. Pick the smallest one that holds everybody and the spare lines print empty.
Everything you type stays in your browser and is drawn on your own device. Nothing is uploaded, and there is no watermark on the print or the PNG.
Want the bracket to run itself?
A printed sheet is finished the moment it leaves the printer. Move this draw into the Bracket widget instead and winners advance on their own, visitors vote and predict, and a live leaderboard ranks everyone’s picks. Your players come across, so you carry on where you left off.
Every bracket sheet
By format
By size
By event
Widgets that pair with a tournament
A printed sheet settles the draw. These free CommonNinja widgets keep the tournament alive on your own site once the first results are in.
Bracket Maker
Bracket generator for creating interactive tournaments that organize matchups, track progress, and deliver a clear and engaging competition experience.
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Use Tool →How It Works
How to make a printable bracket
The whole thing takes about a minute, and the sheet that comes out is designed to be written on rather than looked at.
1. Type or paste your players
One name per line, or paste a column straight out of a spreadsheet. Anything from two to sixty-four players or teams.
2. Pick the size and the draw
How many slots the sheet has, and whether the first round follows your list order, a random draw, or standard seeding where the top seeds are kept apart. Double, consolation and triple elimination each have their own page.
3. Print it or save a PNG
Print gives you a clean A4 sheet, and your browser’s print dialog will save it as a PDF if you prefer. No account, no watermark.
What You Get
A blank bracket, not a finished one
Only the first round carries names. Every round after it prints as empty lines, which is the point: you fill the winners in with a pen as the tournament is played.
- Brackets of 4, 8, 16 and 32Byes are worked out for you when your numbers do not land on a power of two.
- Single and double eliminationDouble adds a blank losers bracket with the right number of rounds underneath.
- Seeded, random or as typedSeeding keeps the top seeds apart and hands them the byes, exactly as a real draw would.
- Optional third place play-offOne extra line beneath the bracket for the losing semi-finalists.
The sheet is drawn as line art rather than as a filled graphic, so it uses very little ink, stays sharp at any print size, and photocopies cleanly if you need twenty of them for an office pool.
Formats
Which format should you run?
The difference is simply how many times somebody has to lose before they are out.
Single elimination
Lose once and you are out. It is the shortest format to run, it fits on one sheet, and it is what most office pools, party tournaments and school competitions use. A bracket of sixteen needs only fifteen matches. This page prints one, and there is a dedicated single elimination sheet with the full arithmetic for every size.
Double elimination
Lose once and you drop into a losers bracket, where a second loss puts you out. It is fairer, because one bad match does not end somebody’s day, but it takes roughly twice as many matches and needs more time. It prints on two sheets, so it has its own page: the double elimination bracket maker.
If you are unsure, use single elimination, which is what this sheet prints. It is easier to run on paper and it is the format nearly everyone already understands without being told the rules. If you want everybody to get more than one game without doubling the schedule, the consolation bracket is the middle option, and triple elimination gives everyone three lives.
Tips
Running a tournament on paper
Print a spare
Print two: one to pin on the wall as the master, and one to carry around. Corrections on a wall chart get messy fast.
Decide ties before you start
Write the tie-break rule at the top of the sheet. Sudden death, best of three, whatever it is, agreeing it in advance saves an argument later.
Give the byes to the top seeds
If your numbers do not fill the bracket, choose the seeded draw. It hands the byes to the top seeds automatically, which is what a real draw does and what people expect.
Number the matches
On a bigger bracket, write a number next to each first round line so people can find their match without reading every name.
Glossary
Bracket words, in plain English
Bye
A free pass through the first round, given when there are not enough players to fill every line. A bracket of sixteen with thirteen players has three byes.
Seed
A player’s ranking going in. Seeding spreads the strongest players across the bracket so they do not knock each other out in round one.
Losers bracket
In double elimination, the second bracket that anyone who loses once drops into. Win your way through it and you can still reach the final.
Third place play-off
An extra match between the two losing semi-finalists, to settle who finishes third. Optional, and often skipped in casual tournaments.
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