elephant folio

There have been many standard sizes of paper at different times and in different countries, but today there are two widespread systems in use: the international standard (A4 and its siblings) and the North American sizes.

Contents 1 The international standard: ISO 216 1.1 German extensions 1.2 Swedish extensions 1.3 Japanese B-series variant 2 North American paper sizes 2.1 Loose sizes 2.1.1 ANSI paper sizes 2.1.2 Architectural sizes 2.1.3 Other sizes 2.2 Tablet sizes 3 Traditional inch-based paper sizes 3.1 Demitab 4 Transitional paper sizes 4.1 PA series 4.2 Antiquarian 4.3 F4 5 Other metric sizes 6 Newspaper sizes 7 See also 8 Footnotes 9 Further reading 10 External links

The international standard: ISO 216

The international paper size standard, ISO 216, is based on the German DIN 476 standard for paper sizes. ISO paper sizes are all based on a single aspect ratio of square root of 2, or approximately 1:1.4142. The base format is a sheet of paper measuring 1 m² in area (A0 paper size). Successive paper sizes in the series A1, A2, A3, and so forth, are defined by halving the preceding paper size. The most frequently used paper size is A4 (210 × 297 mm).

The main advantage of this system is its scaling: if a sheet with an aspect ratio of √2 is divided into two equal halves parallel to its shortest sides, then the halves will again have an aspect ratio of √2. Folded brochures of any size can be made by using sheets of the next larger size, e.g. A4 sheets are folded to make A5 brochures. The system allows scaling without compromising the aspect ratio from one size to another – as provided by office photocopiers, e.g. enlarging A4 to A3 or reducing A3 to A4. Similarly, two sheets of A4 can be scaled down and fit exactly 1 sheet without any cutoff or margins. Weights are easy to calculate as well: a standard A4 sheet made from 80 grams/m² paper weighs 5 grams (as it is one 16th of an A0 page, measuring 1 m²), allowing one to easily compute the weight – and associated postage rate – by counting the number of sheets used.

The advantages of basing a paper size upon an aspect ratio of √2 were already noted in 1786 by the German scientist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (in a letter to Johann Beckmann). Early in the twentieth century, Dr Walter Porstmann turned Lichtenberg's idea into a proper system of different paper sizes. Porstmann's system was introduced as a DIN standard (DIN 476) in Germany in 1922, replacing a vast variety of other paper formats. Even today the paper sizes are called "DIN A4" in everyday use in Germany.

The DIN 476 standard spread quickly to other countries, and before the outbreak of World War II it had been adopted by the following countries:

Belgium (1924) Netherlands (1925) Norway (1926)

Finland (1927) Switzerland (1929) Sweden (1930)

Soviet Union (1934) Hungary (1938) Italy (1939)

During the war it was adopted by Uruguay (1942), Argentina (1943) and Brazil (1943); and afterwards spread to other countries:

Spain (1947) Austria (1948) Romania (1949) Japan (1951) Denmark (1953) Czechoslovakia (1953) Iran (1948) Israel (1954) Portugal (1954) Yugoslavia (1956) India (1957)

Poland (1957) United Kingdom (1959) Ireland (1959) Venezuela (1962) New Zealand (1963) Iceland (1964) Mexico (1965) South Africa (1966) France (1967) Peru (1967) Turkey (1967)

Chile (1968) Greece (1970) Rhodesia (1970) Singapore (1970) Bangladesh (1972) Thailand (1973) Barbados (1973) Australia (1974) Ecuador (1974) Colombia (1975) Kuwait (1975)

By 1975 so many countries were using the German system that it was established as an ISO standard, as well as the official United Nations document format. By 1977 A4 was the standard letter format in 88 of 148 countries. Today the standard has been adopted by all countries in the world except the United States and Canada. In Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile and the Philippines the US letter format is still in common use, despite their official adoption of the ISO standard.

In addition to the A series, there is a less common B series. The area of B series sheets is the geometric mean of successive A series sheets. So, B1 is between A0 and A1 in size, with an area of 0.71 m² (√0.5). As a result, B0 is 1 metre long, and other sizes in the B series are a half, a quarter or further fractions of a metre long. While less common in office use, it is used for a variety of special situations. Many posters use B-series paper or a close approximation, such as 50 cm×70 cm; B5 is a relatively common choice for books. The B series is also used for envelopes and passports.

The C series is used only for envelopes and is defined in ISO 269. The area of C series sheets is the geometric mean of the areas of the A and B series sheets of the same number; for instance, the area of a C4 sheet is the geometric mean of the areas of an A4 sheet and a B4 sheet. This means that C4 is slightly larger than A4, and B4 slightly larger than C4. The practical usage of this is that a letter written on A4 paper fits inside a C4 envelope, and a C4 envelope fits inside a B4 envelope.

ISO paper sizes (plus rounded inch values)

Format	A series		B series		C series
Size	mm × mm	in × in	mm × mm	in × in	mm × mm	in × in
0	841 × 1189	33.1 × 46.8	1000 × 1414	39.4 × 55.7	917 × 1297	36.1 × 51.1
1	594 × 841	23.4 × 33.1	707 × 1000	27.8 × 39.4	648 × 917	25.5 × 36.1
2	420 × 594	16.5 × 23.4	500 × 707	19.7 × 27.8	458 × 648	18.0 × 25.5
3	297 × 420	11.7 × 16.5	353 × 500	13.9 × 19.7	324 × 458	12.8 × 18.0
4	210 × 297	8.3 × 11.7	250 × 353	9.8 × 13.9	228 × 324	9.0 × 12.8
5	148 × 210	5.8 × 8.3	176 × 250	6.9 × 9.8	162 × 229	6.4 × 9.0
6	105 × 148	4.1 × 5.8	125 × 176	4.9 × 6.9	114 × 162	4.5 × 6.4
7	74 × 105	2.9 × 4.1	88 × 125	3.5 × 4.9	81 × 114.9	3.2 × 4.5
8	52 × 74	2.0 × 2.9	62 × 88	2.4 × 3.5	57 × 81	2.2 × 3.2
9	37 × 52	1.5 × 2.0	44 × 62	1.7 × 2.4	40 × 57	1.6 × 2.2
10	26 × 37	1.0 × 1.5	31 × 44	1.2 × 1.7	28 × 40	1.1 × 1.6

The tolerances specified in the standard are

• ±1.5 mm (0.06 in) for dimensions up to 150 mm (5.9 in),
• ±2 mm (0.08 in) for lengths in the range 150 to 600 mm (5.9 to 23.6 in) and
• ±3 mm (0.12 in) for any dimension above 600 mm (23.6 in).

German extensions

The German standard DIN 476 was published in 1922 and is the original specification of the A and B sizes. It differs in two details from its international successor:

DIN 476 provides an extension to formats larger than A0, denoted by a prefix factor. In particular, it lists the two formats 2A0, which is twice the area of A0, and 4A0, which is four times A0:

DIN 476 overformats

Name	mm × mm	in × in
4A0	1682 × 2378	66.2 × 93.6
2A0	1189 × 1682	46.8 × 66.2

DIN 476 also specifies slightly tighter tolerances:

• ±1 mm (0.04 in) for dimensions up to 150 mm (5.9 in),
• ±1.5 mm (0.06 in) for lengths in the range 150 mm to 600 mm (5.9 to 23.6 in) and
• ±2 mm (0.08 in) for any dimension above 600 mm (23.6 in).

Swedish extensions

The Swedish standard SIS 014711 generalized the ISO system of A, B, and C formats by adding D, E, F, and G formats to it. Its D format sits between a B format and the next larger A format (just like C sits between A and the next larger B). The remaining formats fit in between all these formats, such that the sequence of formats A4, E4, C4, G4, B4, F4, D4, H4, A3 is a geometric progression, in which the dimensions grow by a factor 2^1/16 from one size to the next. However, the SIS 014711 standard does not define any size between a D format and the next larger A format (called H in the previous example). Of these additional formats, G5 (169x239 mm) and E5 (155x220 mm) are popular in Sweden for printing dissertations,^{[citation needed]} but the other formats have not turned out to be particularly useful in practice and they have not been adopted internationally.

Japanese B-series variant

The JIS defines two main series of paper sizes. The JIS A-series is identical to the ISO A-series, but with slightly different tolerances. The area of B-series paper is 1.5 times that of the corresponding A-paper, so the length ratio is approximately 1.22 times the length of the corresponding A-series paper. The aspect ratio of the paper is the same as for A-series paper. Both A- and B-series paper is widely available in Japan and Taiwan, and most photocopiers are loaded with at least A4 and B4 paper.

There are also a number of traditional paper sizes, which are now used mostly only by printers. The most common of these old series are the Shiroku-ban and the Kiku paper sizes.

JIS paper sizes (plus rounded inch values)

Format	B series		Shiroku ban		Kiku
Size	mm × mm	in × in	mm × mm	in × in	mm × mm	in × in
0	1030 × 1456	40.6 × 57.3
1	728 × 1030	28.7 × 40.6
2	515 × 728	20.3 × 28.7
3	364 × 515	14.3 × 20.3
4	257 × 364	10.1 × 14.3	264 × 379	10.4 × 14.9	227 × 306	8.9 × 12.0
5	182 × 257	7.2 × 10.1	189 × 262	7.4 × 10.3	151 × 227	5.9 × 8.9
6	128 × 182	5.0 × 7.2	127 × 188	5.0 × 7.4
7	91 × 128	3.6 × 5.0
8	64 × 91	2.5 × 3.6
9	45 × 64	1.8 × 2.5
10	32 × 45	1.3 × 1.8
11	22 × 32	0.9 × 1.3
12	16 × 22	0.6 × 0.9

North American paper sizes

Loose sizes

Current standard sizes of U.S. and Canadian paper are a subset of the traditional sizes referred to below. "Letter", "legal", "ledger", and "tabloid" are by far the most commonly used of these for everyday activities. With the broadening theatres of international businesses, the letter size series are even more being considered a source of confusion in printing documents for global use. The origins of the exact dimensions of "letter" size paper (8½ in × 11 in, 215.9 mm × 279.4 mm) are lost in tradition and not well documented. The American Forest and Paper Association argues that the dimension originates from the days of manual paper making, and that the 11 inch length of the page is about a quarter of "the average maximum stretch of an experienced vatman's arms."^[1] However, this does not explain the width or aspect ratio. Outside of North America, Letter size is also known as "American Quarto".^{[citation needed]}

North American paper sizes

Size	in × in	mm × mm
Letter	8.5 × 11	216 × 279
Legal	8.5 × 14	216 × 356
Junior Legal	8.0 × 5.0	203 × 127
Ledger[2]	17 × 11	432 × 279
Tabloid	11 × 17	279 × 432

There is an additional paper size, to which the name "government-letter" was given by the IEEE Printer Working Group: the 8 in × 10½ in (203.2 mm × 266.7 mm) paper that is used in the United States and Canada for children's writing. It was prescribed by Herbert Hoover when he was Secretary of Commerce to be used for U.S. government forms, apparently to enable discounts from the purchase of paper for schools. In later years, as photocopy machines proliferated, citizens wanted to make photocopies of the forms, but the machines did not generally have this size paper in their bins. Ronald Reagan therefore had the U.S. government switch to regular letter size (8½ in × 11 in).^{[citation needed]} The 8 in × 10½ in size is still commonly used in spiral-bound notebooks and the like.

U.S. paper sizes are currently standard in the United States, the Philippines and Chile. The latter two use U.S. "letter", but the Philippine and Chilean "legal" size is 8½ in × 13 in (215.9 mm × 330.2 mm).^[3] ISO sizes are available, but not widely used, in both the U.S. and the Philippines.

In Canada, U.S. paper sizes are a de facto standard. The government, however, uses a combination of ISO paper sizes, and CAN 2-9.60M "Paper Sizes for Correspondence" specifies P1 through P6 paper sizes, which are the U.S. paper sizes rounded to the nearest 5 mm.^[4]

Mexico has adopted the ISO standard, but U.S. "letter" format is still the system in use throughout the country. It is virtually impossible to encounter ISO standard papers in day-to-day uses, with "Carta 216 mm × 279 mm" (letter), "Oficio 216 mm × 340 mm" (legal) and "Doble carta" (ledger/tabloid) being nearly universal. U.S. sizes are also widespread and in common use in Colombia [1]. This is the most common paper size in Costa Rica.^{[citation needed]}

ANSI paper sizes

In 1995, the American National Standards Institute adopted ANSI/ASME Y14.1 which defined a regular series of paper sizes based upon the de facto standard 8½ in × 11 in "letter" size which it assigned "ANSI A". This series also includes "ledger"/"tabloid" as "ANSI B". This series is somewhat similar to the ISO standard in that cutting a sheet in half would produce two sheets of the next smaller size. Unlike the ISO standard, however, the arbitrary aspect ratio forces this series to have two alternating aspect ratios. The ANSI series is shown below.

With care, documents can be prepared so that the text and images fit on either ANSI or their equivalent ISO sheets at 1:1 reproduction scale.

Name	in × in	mm × mm	Ratio	Alias	Similar ISO A size
ANSI A	8½ × 11	216 × 279	1.2941	Letter	A4
ANSI B	17 × 11 11 × 17	432 × 279 279 × 432	1.5455	Ledger[2] Tabloid	A3
ANSI C	17 × 22	432 × 559	1.2941		A2
ANSI D	22 × 34	559 × 864	1.5455		A1
ANSI E	34 × 44	864 × 1118	1.2941		A0

Other, larger sizes continuing the alphabetic series illustrated above exist, but it should be noted that they are not part of the series per se, because they do not exhibit the same aspect ratios. For example, Engineering F size (28 in × 40 in, 711.2 mm × 1016.0 mm) also exists, but is rarely encountered, as are G, H, … N size drawings. G size is 22½ in (571.5 mm) high, but variable width up to 90 in (2286 mm) in increments of 8½ in, i.e., roll format. H and larger letter sizes are also roll formats. Such sheets were at one time used for full-scale layouts of aircraft parts, wiring harnesses and the like, but today are generally not needed, due to widespread use of computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM).

Architectural sizes

In addition to the ANSI system as listed above, there is a corresponding series of paper sizes used for architectural purposes. This series also shares the property that bisecting each size produces two of the size below. ^[5] It may be preferred by North American architects because the aspect ratios (4:3 and 3:2) are ratios of small integers, unlike their ANSI (or ISO) counterparts. Furthermore, the aspect ratio 4:3 matches the traditional aspect ratio for computer displays. ^[5] The architectural series, usually abbreviated "Arch", is shown below:

Name	in × in	mm × mm	Ratio
Arch A	9 × 12	229 × 305	4:3
Arch B	12 × 18	305 × 457	3:2
Arch C	18 × 24	457 × 610	4:3
Arch D	24 × 36	610 × 914	3:2
Arch E	36 × 48	914 × 1219	4:3
Arch E1	30 × 42	762 × 1067	7:5

Other sizes

Name	in × in	mm × mm	Ratio	dot x dot
Organizer J	2.75 × 5	70 × 127	~1.8142
Compact	4.25 × 6.75	108 × 171	1.5833
Organizer L, Statement, Half Letter, Memo, Jepps*	5.5 × 8.5	140 × 216	1.54
Executive, Monarch	7.25 × 10.5	184 × 267	~1.4483
Government-Letter	8 × 10.5	203 × 267	1.3125
Foolscap, Folio[2]	8.27 × 13	210 × 330	1.625
Letter, Organizer M	8.5 × 11	216 × 279	~1.2941
Fanfold 12x8.5, German Std Fanfold	8.5 × 12	216 × 304	1.047	612 × 864
Government-Legal, Folio	8.5 × 13	216 × 330	~1.5294
Legal, Monarch?	8.5 × 14	216 × 356	~1.6067
Quarto	9 × 11	229 × 279	1.2
US Std Fanfold	11 × 14.875	279 × 377	~1.3513	792 × 1071
Ledger, Tabloid, Organizer K, Bible	11 × 17	279 × 432	1.54
Super-B	13 × 19	330 × 483	~1.4615
Post	15.5 × 19.5	394 × 489	~1.2581
Crown	15 × 20	381 × 508	1.3
Large Post	16.5 × 21	419 × 533	1.27
Demy	17.5 × 22.5	445 × 572	~1.2857
Medium	18 × 23	457 × 584	1.27
Broadsheet	18 × 24	457 × 610	1.3
Royal	20 × 25	508 × 635	1.25
Elephant	23 × 28	584 × 711	~1.2174
Double Demy	22.5 × 35	572 × 889	1.5
Quad Demy	35 × 45	889 × 1143	~1.2857

Personal Organizers and Other Corporations

Company	Name, Size in x in (Various hole sizes)
"Filofax". http://www.filofaxusa.com/sizeguide/.
Mini	4 1/4 x 2 5/8 (108 x 143 mm) with 5 holes
Pocket	4 3/4 x 3 1/4 (121 x 83 mm) with 6 holes
Personal	6 3/4 x 3 3/4 (171 x 95 mm) with 6 holes
Slimline	6 3/4 x 3 3/4 (171 x 95 mm) with 6 holes
A5	8 1/4 x 5 3/4 (210 x 146 mm) with 6 holes
"Franklin Planner". http://www.franklinplanner.com.
Pocket	3 1/2 x 6 (89 x 152 mm)
Compact	4 1/4 x 6 3/4 (108 x 171 mm)
Classic	5 1/2 x 8 1/2 (140 x 216 mm)
*Jeppesen Aeronautical Charts
Jeppesen Chart	5 1/2 x 8 1/2 (140 x 216 mm) 7 holes

Index and business cards

Name	in × in	mm × mm	Ratio
Index card	3 × 5	76 × 127	1.6
Index card	4 × 6	102 × 152	1.5
Index card	5 × 8	127 × 203	1.6
International business card *	2⅛ × 3.37	53.98 × 85.6	1.586
US business card	2 × 3.5	51 × 89	1.75
Japanese business card	~2.165 × ~3.583	55 × 91	~1.65
Hungarian business card	~1.969 × ~3.543	50 × 90	1.8

* This is the same size as the smallest rectangle containing a credit card. However, credit card size, as defined in ISO/IEC 7810, also specifies rounded edges and a thickness.

Photograph sizes

Name	in × in	mm × mm	Ratio
2R	2.5 × 3.5	64 × 89	1.4
-	3 × 5	76 × 127	1.6
LD, DSC	3.5 × 4.67	89 × 119	1.3 (4:3)
3R, L	3.5 × 5	89 × 127	~1.4286
LW	3.5 × 5.25	89 × 133	1.5 (3:2)
KGD	4 × 5.33	102 × 136	1.3 (4:3)
4R, KG	4 × 6	102 × 152	1.5 (3:2)
2LD, DSCW	5 × 6.67	127 × 169	1.3 (4:3)
5R, 2L	5 × 7	127 × 178	1.4
2LW	5 × 7.5	127 × 190	1.5 (3:2)
8R, 6P	8 × 10	203 × 254	1.25
S8R, 6PW	8 × 12	203 × 305	1.5 (3:2)
11R	11 × 14	279 × 356	1.27

Postcard size limitations

Dimension	Minimum (inch)	Maximum (inch)
Height	3.5	4.25
Width	5.0	6.0
Thickness	0.007	0.016

Tablet sizes

The sizes listed above are for paper sold loosely in reams. There are many sizes of tablets of paper, that is, sheets of paper kept from flying around by being bound at one edge, usually by a strip of plastic or hardened PVA adhesive. Often there is a pad of cardboard (also known as chipboard or greyboard) at the bottom of the stack. Such a tablet serves as a portable writing surface, and the sheets often have lines printed on them, usually in blue, to make writing in a line easier. An older means of binding is to have the sheets stapled to the cardboard along the top of the tablet; there is a line of perforated holes across every page just below the top edge from which any page may be torn off. Lastly, a pad of sheets each weakly stuck with adhesive to the sheet below, trademarked as "Post-It" or "Stick-Em" and available in various sizes, serve as a sort of tablet.

"Letter pads" are 8½ by 11 inches, while the term "legal pad" is often used by laymen to refer to pads of various sizes including those of 8½ by 14 inches. There are "steno pads" (used by stenographers) of 6 by 9 inches.

In countries where the ISO sizes are standard, most notebooks and tablets are sized to ISO specifications (for example, most newsagents in Australia stock A4 and A3 tablets).

Traditional inch-based paper sizes

Traditionally, a number of different sizes were defined for large sheets of paper, and paper sizes were defined by the sheet name and the number of times it had been folded. Thus a full sheet of "royal" paper was 25 × 20 inches, and "royal octavo" was this size folded three times, so as to make eight sheets, and was thus 10 by 6¼ inches.

Imperial sizes were used in the United Kingdom and its territories. Some of the base sizes were as follows:

Name	in × in	mm × mm	Ratio
Emperor	48 × 72	1219 × 1829	1.5
Antiquarian	31 × 53	787 × 1346	1.7097
Grand eagle	28.75 × 42	730 × 1067	1.4609
Double elephant	26.75 × 40	678 × 1016	1.4984
Atlas*	26 × 34	660 × 864	1.3077
Colombier	23.5 × 34.5	597 × 876	1.4681
Double demy	22.5 × 35.5	572 × 902	1.5(7)
Imperial*	22 × 30	559 × 762	1.3636
Double large post	21 × 33	533 × 838	1.5713
Elephant*	23 × 28	584 × 711	1.2174
Princess	21.5 × 28	546 × 711	1.3023
Cartridge	21 × 26	533 × 660	1.2381
Royal*	20 × 25	508 × 635	1.25
Sheet, half post	19.5 × 23.5	495 × 597	1.2051
Double post	19 × 30.5	483 × 762	1.6052
Super royal	19 × 27	483 × 686	1.4203
Medium*	17.5 × 23	470 × 584	1.2425
Demy*	17.5 × 22.5	445 × 572	1.2857
Large post	16.5 × 21	419 × 533	1.(27)
Copy draught	16 × 20	406 × 508	1.25
Large post	15.5 × 20	394 × 508	1.2903
Post*	15.5 × 19.25	394 × 489	1.2419
Crown*	15 × 20	381 × 508	1.(3)
Pinched post	14.75 × 18.5	375 × 470	1.2533
Foolscap*	13.5 × 17	343 × 432	1.2593
Small foolscap	13.25 × 16.5	337 × 419	1.2453
Brief	13.5 × 16	343 × 406	1.1852
Pott	12.5 × 15	318 × 381	1.2

* The sizes marked with an asterisk are still in use in the United States.

Traditional sizes for writing paper in the United Kingdom [2], :

Name	in × in
Quarto	11 × 9
Imperial	9 × 7
Kings	8 × 6.5
Dukes	7 × 5.5

The common divisions and their abbreviations include:

Name	Abbr.	Folds	Leaves	Pages
Folio	fo, f	1	2	4
Quarto	4to	2	4	8
Sexto, sixmo	6to, 6mo	3	6	12
Octavo	8vo	3	8	16
Duodecimo, twelvemo	12mo	4	12	24
Sextodecimo, sixteenmo	16mo	4	16	32

Foolscap folio is often referred to simply as 'folio' or 'foolscap'. Similarly, 'quarto' is more correctly 'copy draught quarto'.

Many of these sizes were only used for making books (see bookbinding), and would never have been offered for ordinary stationery purposes.

Demitab

The demitab or demi-tab (from the French "demi" or half tabloid) is 5.5" x 8.5", equal to half a sheet of 11"x17" tabloid size paper. In actual circulation the size 8" x 10.5" is common for a demitab. ^[6] Tabloid newspapers, which are "generally half the size of a Broadsheet," also vary in size. To add to the lack of uniformity, Broadsheets also vary in size.

Most industry standards express the width first and the height second, or 11" x 17" for Tabloid not 17" x 11". ^[7]

See switching costs, network effects and standardization for possible reasons for differing regional adoption rates of the ISO standard sizes.

Transitional paper sizes

PA series

PA4-based series

Name	mm × mm	Ratio
PA0	840 × 1120	3:4
PA1	560 × 840	2:3
PA2	420 × 560	3:4
PA3	280 × 420	2:3
PA4	210 × 280	3:4
PA5	140 × 210	2:3
PA6	105 × 140	3:4
PA7	70 × 105	2:3
PA8	52 × 70	≈3:4
PA9	35 × 52	≈2:3
PA10	26 × 35	≈3:4

A transitional size called PA4 (210 mm × 280 mm, 8¼ in × 11 in) was proposed for inclusion into the ISO 216 standard in 1975. It has the height of Canadian P4 paper (215 mm × 280 mm, about 8½ in × 11 in) and the width of international A4 paper (210 mm × 297 mm). The table to the right, shows how this format can be generalized into an entire format series.

The PA formats did not end up in ISO 216, because the committee felt that the set of standardized paper formats should be kept to the minimum necessary. However, PA4 remains of practical use today. In landscape orientation, it has the same 4:3 aspect ratio as the displays of traditional TV sets, some computer displays and data projectors. PA4, with appropriate margins, is therefore a good choice as the format of presentation slides. At the same time, PA4 is the largest format that fits on both A4 and US/Canadian Letter paper without resizing.

PA4 is used today by many international magazines, because it can be printed easily on equipment designed for either A4 or US Letter.

Antiquarian

Although the movement is towards the international standard metric paper sizes, on the way there from the traditional ones there has been at least one new size just a little larger than that used internationally. British architects and industrial designers once used a size called "Antiquarian" as listed above, but given in the New Metric Handbook (Tutt & Adler 1981) as 813 mm × 1372 mm. This is a little larger than the A0 size. So for a short time, a size called A0a (1000 mm × 1370 mm) was used in Britain.

F4

F4 (210 mm × 330 mm) is common in Southeast Asia and Australia, and is sometimes called "foolscap". It has the same width as A4, but is longer.

Other metric sizes

Name	mm × mm	in × in	Notes
DL	110 × 220	4.3 × 8.7
F4	210 × 330	8.3 × 13.0
RA0	860 × 1220	33.9 × 48.0
RA1	610 × 860	24.0 × 33.9
RA2	430 × 610	16.9 × 24.0
RA3	305 × 430	12.0 × 16.9
RA4	215 × 305	8.5 × 12.0
SRA0	900 × 1280	35.4 × 50.4
SRA1	640 × 900	25.2 × 35.4
SRA2	450 × 640	17.7 × 25.2
SRA3	320 × 450	12.6 × 17.7
SRA4	225 × 320	8.9 × 12.6
A3+	329 × 483	12.9 × 19.0	(A3+ not recognised standard so sizes may vary. For instance HP class A3+ as 457x305mm)

Newspaper sizes

Newspapers have a separate set of sizes.

• Berliner
• Broadsheet
• Compact
• Tabloid

In a recent trend [[3]] many newspapers have been undergoing what is known as "web cut down", in which the publication is redesigned to print using a narrower (and less expensive) roll of paper. In extreme examples, some broadsheet papers are nearly as narrow as traditional tabloids.

See also

• Paper density
  • Grammage
  • Basis weight
• Standard photographic print sizes
• Punchhole — filing holes
• Envelope size
• Index card
• Book size
• Bookbinding
• PC LOAD LETTER
• New Zealand standard for school stationery

Footnotes

Further reading

1. International standard ISO 216, Writing paper and certain classes of printed matter — Trimmed sizes — A and B series. International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, 1975.
2. International standard ISO 217: Paper — Untrimmed sizes — Designation and tolerances for primary and supplementary ranges, and indication of machine direction. International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, 1995.
3. Max Helbig, Winfried Hennig: DIN-Format A4 – Ein Erfolgssystem in Gefahr. Beuth-Kommentare, Beuth Verlag, Berlin, 1998. ISBN 3-410-11878-0
4. Arthur D. Dunn: Notes on the standardization of paper sizes. Ottawa, Canada, 54 pages, 1972.

External links

• Papersize Cheatsheet
• Page listing conversion tables for paper weights
• Web page on traditional paper sizes used in books, with reference tables
• IEEE-ISTO 5101.1-2002 "The Printer Working Group Standard for Media Standardized Names" (PDF)
• American paper sizes
• Japanese and international paper size
• Georg C. Lichtenberg (25 Oct. 1786) Letter to Johann Bergmann.
• Paper Weight & Size -- When is 80# NOT 80#?
• Markus Kuhn's excellent discussion, which may be freely reprinted.
• Website about the DIN-A format