Conway’s Game of Life
Run Conway’s Game of Life and print it: cells on a grid are born with exactly 3 live neighbours and survive with 2 or 3, and every other cell dies, one generation at a time. Start from a named pattern (glider, lightweight spaceship, blinker, toad, beacon, pulsar, pentadecathlon, still lifes, the R-pentomino, diehard, acorn or the Gosper glider gun), a random soup with a seed, or your own RLE. Choose a grid from 3 × 3 to 400 × 400 with edges that wrap round or stay dead, jump to any generation up to 5,000, and print one generation, a trail of every cell that was ever alive, or up to six generations side by side, with a blank panel for a worksheet. Download a PDF, a 300 DPI PNG, an SVG or the RLE text. Nothing is uploaded. Not affiliated with Hasbro or the board game The Game of Life.
100% private — everything runs in your browser. Everything runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
Print at 100% (Actual size). Real size prints on one sheet when the drawing fits; the check bar in the footer lets you confirm the scale. The SVG holds the drawing at the printed size.
Pattern
Generations
Page
Runs in your browser with our own code: nothing you type or paste is uploaded or saved. Every generation is worked out by our own code with the rule B3/S23 on the grid shown. You may use what you make here, including commercially, with no credit needed.
How to run and print Conway’s Game of Life
- Pick a preset, or choose a pattern, a random soup or paste RLE.
- Set the grid size and the edges (wrap round or dead).
- Set the generation, or press Next generation, and choose one generation, a trail or several side by side.
- Choose Fitted to one page or Real size and the paper.
- Download the PDF and print at 100% (Actual size), or the PNG, SVG or RLE.
What you can use it for
- Maths and computing lessons on cellular automata
- Predict-the-next-generation worksheets with a blank panel
- Posters and wall art of trails and glider guns
- Plotter, laser and vinyl art from the SVG
- Swapping patterns with Life programs as RLE
- Cross-stitch and pixel charts from a generation
The 15 presets
| Preset | Grid | Edges | Shows | Cells alive | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glider, generations 0 to 4 (it moves one cell down and right every 4) | 10 × 10 | wrap round | generations 0–4 | 5 | fitted |
| Still lifes: block, beehive, loaf, boat, tub (unchanged every generation) | 26 × 8 | dead | generation 0 | 26 | fitted |
| Blinker, toad and beacon, generations 0 and 1 (period 2) | 18 × 8 | dead | generations 0–1 | 17 | fitted |
| Pulsar, generations 0, 1 and 2 (period 3) | 17 × 17 | dead | generations 0–2 | 48 | fitted |
| Pentadecathlon, generations 0 to 14 as a trail (period 15) | 18 × 11 | dead | trail 0–14 | 16 | fitted |
| Lightweight spaceship, generations 0 to 4 (two cells left every 4) | 12 × 9 | wrap round | generations 0–4 | 9 | fitted |
| Gosper glider gun at generation 120 (four gliders out) | 60 × 44 | dead | generation 120 | 56 | fitted |
| R-pentomino on 160 × 160, trail of generations 0 to 1,103 | 160 × 160 | dead | trail 0–1,103 | 110 | fitted |
| Diehard, trail of generations 0 to 130 (nothing left at 130) | 40 × 30 | dead | trail 0–130 | 0 | fitted |
| Acorn on a 200 × 200 wrap-around grid, generation 500 | 200 × 200 | wrap round | generation 500 | 276 | fitted |
| Random soup 64 × 64 (seed 1, 35% alive), generation 0 | 64 × 64 | wrap round | generation 0 | 1,455 | fitted |
| Random soup 120 × 120, trail of generations 0 to 200 | 120 × 120 | wrap round | trail 0–200 | 1,011 | fitted |
| Random soup 400 × 400, generation 100 (the largest grid) | 400 × 400 | wrap round | generation 100 | 14,104 | fitted |
| Worksheet: glider, generations 0 and 1, then a blank grid to fill in (6 mm cells, real size) | 8 × 8 | wrap round | generations 0–2 | 5 | real size |
| Real size: blinker on a 7 × 7 grid at 10 mm cells, generations 0 and 1 | 7 × 7 | dead | generations 0–1 | 3 | real size |
Every count is worked out by the tool from the generation it draws.
Still lifes, oscillators and spaceships, checked
| Pattern | Type | Live cells | What the tool finds (30 × 30, wrap round) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Block | still life | 4 | unchanged (period 1) |
| Beehive | still life | 6 | unchanged (period 1) |
| Loaf | still life | 7 | unchanged (period 1) |
| Boat | still life | 5 | unchanged (period 1) |
| Tub | still life | 4 | unchanged (period 1) |
| Blinker | oscillator | 3 | period 2 |
| Toad | oscillator | 6 | period 2 |
| Beacon | oscillator | 8 | period 2 |
| Pulsar | oscillator | 48 | period 3 |
| Pentadecathlon | oscillator | 12 | period 15 |
| Glider | spaceship | 5 | repeats after 4, moved 1 across, 1 down |
| Lightweight spaceship | spaceship | 9 | repeats after 4, moved 2 across, 0 down |
Each period and shift is found by stepping the pattern until it returns. The names and periods match the Conway’s Game of Life article on Wikipedia (read 12 November 2026).
Long-lived starts
| Pattern | Live cells at the start | On an unlimited grid (Wikipedia, checked by our own simulator) | On the preset grid in this tool |
|---|---|---|---|
| R-pentomino | 5 | population 116 at generation 1,103 | 160 × 160 dead-edge grid: 110 alive at generation 1,103 |
| Diehard | 7 | nothing left after 130 generations | 40 × 30 dead-edge grid: 0 alive at generation 130 |
| Acorn | 7 | 633 cells at generation 5,206 | 200 × 200 wrap-round grid: 794 alive at generation 5,206 |
Wrap-round and dead edges
| Run | What happens (worked out by the tool) |
|---|---|
| Glider, 10 × 10, wrap round | comes back to where it started after 40 generations |
| Glider, 12 × 12, dead edges | hits the corner and stops as a 4-cell block from generation 23 |
| Pulsar, 15 × 15, wrap round | no longer period 3: its own cells meet across the edges |
| Pulsar, 15 × 15, dead edges | period 3 |
Patterns as RLE
| Pattern | RLE (after the header line x = …, y = …, rule = B3/S23) |
|---|---|
| Glider | bo$2bo$3o! |
| Blinker (period 2) | 3o! |
| R-pentomino | b2o$2o$bo! |
| Lightweight spaceship (LWSS) | bo2bo$o$o3bo$4o! |
| Pulsar (period 3) | 2b3o3b3o2$o4bobo4bo$o4bobo4bo$o4bobo4bo$2b3o3b3o2$2b3o3b3o$o4bobo4bo$o4bobo4bo$o4bobo4bo2$2b3o3b3o! |
The RLE format as described in the Golly help on file formats (read 12 November 2026); the R-pentomino line matches its example exactly.
What prints
| Download | What is in it |
|---|---|
| The grid fitted to one page or at real size, vector, with the population, the edges and a check bar | |
| PNG 300 DPI | The same sheet as a picture |
| SVG | The grid at the printed size: live cells as exact rectangles (one row of touching cells per rectangle), grid lines and frames |
| RLE | The generation shown, as text for Life programs |
For a cutter that needs DXF, use SVG to DXF.
Which tool to use
| You want | Use |
|---|---|
| Cells that live and die by B3/S23, printable generations and trails | Conway’s Game of Life (this page) |
| An ant that turns on white and black cells | Langton’s Ant |
| Pixels you place by hand | Pixel Art Maker |
| Tiles of quarter circles and triangles | Truchet Tiles |
| Mazes to solve | Maze Generator |
Other tools: the Pixel Art Maker lets you draw cells by hand, Truchet Tiles prints tile patterns and the Maze Generator makes mazes.
More free tools
Grids, patterns and printables?
Drawing and print tools that run privately in your browser, with no sign-up and no watermark.
Frequently asked questions
What is Conway’s Game of Life?
A cellular automaton devised by the mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970. It first appeared in public in Martin Gardner’s Mathematical Games column in Scientific American in October 1970. Nobody plays it after the start: the first pattern decides everything that follows. It has nothing to do with the board game of the same name.
What are the rules?
Each cell has 8 neighbours. A dead cell with exactly 3 live neighbours is born; a live cell with 2 or 3 live neighbours stays alive; every other cell is dead in the next generation. This is written B3/S23 (born on 3, survives on 2 or 3). The tool applies it to every cell at once, and our tests check it against two separate simulators of our own.
What do the edge settings do?
The grid is finite. Wrap round joins the left edge to the right and the top to the bottom, like a doughnut, so a glider leaving one side comes back on the other. Dead edges treat every cell outside the grid as dead forever, so a glider that reaches a corner stops as a block. The table on this page shows both, worked out by the tool.
What are still lifes, oscillators and spaceships?
Still lifes never change (the block and the beehive). Oscillators come back to their first shape after a fixed number of generations, their period: 2 for the blinker, toad and beacon, 3 for the pulsar and 15 for the pentadecathlon. Spaceships come back to their shape moved across the grid: the glider moves one cell across and one down every 4 generations. Every period and shift in the table is checked by the tool.
What is the trail view?
It prints every cell that was alive at any generation from 0 to the one you chose. Cells alive at the last generation are darkest, cells alive in the last half of the run are the middle shade and older ones are lightest, so you can see where the pattern has been.
What is RLE?
A short text format that Life programs use to share patterns: a header such as x = 3, y = 3, rule = B3/S23, then the rows from top to bottom, with b for a dead cell, o for a live one, $ for the end of a row and ! at the end; a number in front repeats the next item. The R-pentomino is b2o$2o$bo!. Paste RLE to start from it, or press RLE to save the generation shown.
How long do the R-pentomino, diehard and acorn run?
On an unlimited grid, the R-pentomino settles after 1,103 generations with 116 live cells, diehard disappears after 130 generations and the acorn takes 5,206 generations to reach 633 cells. Our tests confirm all three with our own unlimited simulator. On a finite grid in this tool the results can differ, because gliders reach the edge; the table shows what happens on the preset grids.
Can I make a worksheet?
Yes. Choose Several generations side by side, tick Leave the last one blank, turn on grid lines and print at real size: pupils work out the next generation by hand and check it against the tool.
How big can it go?
Grids up to 400 × 400 and generations up to 5,000, as long as cells × generations stays under 60 million, so every preset draws in under 2 seconds in our tests. Side by side works for grids up to 10,000 cells, with 2 to 6 generations.
Can it print at real size?
Yes, when the drawing fits on one sheet: choose Real size and set the cell size. Every printed cell is within 0.2 mm of its true place and size in our tests, on US Letter and A4, as long as you print at 100% (Actual size); the check bar in the footer lets you confirm the scale. Bigger drawings print fitted to the page.
Is it free?
Yes. There is no sign-up, no watermark and no limit.
Is anything uploaded?
No. Every generation, step and cell is worked out by JavaScript in your browser. Nothing you type or paste is sent anywhere or saved when you close the page.