Print your copy
Print this page and the grid comes out at the correct size, with instructions and our phone number on the sheet. Tape it to the refrigerator, a bathroom mirror, or anywhere you will actually see it every day. When printing, set your printer to 100% scale — not “fit to page” — so the squares come out the right size.
- Wear your reading glasses or bifocals, if you use them.
- Hold this grid about 14 inches away, in good light.
- Cover one eye. Look straight at the dot in the center and keep looking at it.
- While looking at the dot, notice whether any lines are wavy, blurry, broken, or missing, or whether any squares look distorted or dark.
- Repeat with the other eye. Check every day, and always check each eye separately.
Printed at 100% scale, each small square measures 5 mm (about 3/16 inch) and the whole grid measures 10 cm across.
Call us right away if anything looks different from the last time you checked: (315) 445-8166
How to use it
- Put your reading glasses on. If you wear bifocals, look through the reading portion. The grid is meant to be seen clearly.
- Hold it about 14 inches from your face — roughly comfortable reading distance — in good, even light.
- Cover one eye with your hand or a card. Do not press on the eye.
- Look directly at the dot in the middle and keep your gaze there. This is the part people most often get wrong: do not let your eye wander around the grid. Everything you are testing is what you notice while staring at the center dot.
- Repeat with the other eye. Each eye is tested on its own, because the good eye will otherwise cover for the other one and hide a real change.
- Do it at the same time each day, so you are comparing like with like. Many patients tie it to brushing their teeth or making morning coffee.
What to look for
While looking at the center dot, ask yourself:
- Are all four corners and all four sides of the square visible?
- Do any of the lines look wavy, bent, or crooked?
- Are any lines broken, blurred, or missing?
- Are there any dark, grey, or empty patches where the grid should be?
- Do any of the squares look bigger, smaller, or a different shape than the rest?
- Does anything look different from the way it looked yesterday?
The point of a daily check is not to find perfection. Many people have small, stable irregularities. What matters is change from your own baseline.
When to call us
Call (315) 445-8166 promptly — do not wait for your next scheduled appointment — if you notice a new area of waviness, a new blurred or dark spot, a new break in the lines, or any change from the way the grid looked before. New distortion can be the first sign of fluid or bleeding under the retina, and treatment works best when it is started early.
If you also have sudden vision loss, a shower of new floaters, flashing lights, or a curtain or shadow across your vision, call us the same day — see flashes and floaters.
Why it matters
The Amsler grid tests the macula, the small central area of the retina that produces sharp, detailed vision. Conditions that affect the macula — macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema, macular hole, epiretinal membrane, cystoid macular edema, and ocular histoplasmosis — distort the retinal surface before they destroy it. That distortion shows up on the grid as bent or missing lines, often before you notice anything in daily life.
A grid on the refrigerator is not a substitute for your examinations with us, and it does not detect everything. But it is the single most useful thing most patients can do between visits, and it costs nothing but a few seconds a day.