![Comparison paper sizes](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Comparison_paper_sizes.svg)
Paper size
standards govern the size of sheets of paper used as writing paper, stationery, cards, and for some printed documents.
The
ISO 216
ISO 216 is an international standard for paper sizes, used around the world except in North America and parts of Latin America. The standard defines the "A", "B" and "C" series of paper sizes, including A4, the most commonly available paper size ...
standard, which includes the commonly used A4 size, is the
international standard
international standard is a technical standard developed by one or more international standards organizations. International standards are available for consideration and use worldwide. The most prominent such organization is the International Or ...
for paper size. It is used across the world except in North America and parts of Central and South America, where
North American paper sizes such as "
Letter
Letter, letters, or literature may refer to:
Characters typeface
* Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet.
* Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabe ...
" and "
Legal
Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
" are used.
The international standard for envelopes is the
C series of
ISO 269
An envelope is a common packaging item, usually made of thin, flat material. It is designed to contain a flat object, such as a letter or card.
Traditional envelopes are made from sheets of paper cut to one of three shapes: a rhombus, a sh ...
.
International paper sizes
![Prevalent default paper size](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Prevalent_default_paper_size.svg)
The international paper size standard is
ISO 216
ISO 216 is an international standard for paper sizes, used around the world except in North America and parts of Latin America. The standard defines the "A", "B" and "C" series of paper sizes, including A4, the most commonly available paper size ...
. It is based on the German
DIN 476 standard for paper sizes. ISO paper sizes are all based on a single
aspect ratio of the
square root of 2
The square root of 2 (approximately 1.4142) is a positive real number that, when multiplied by itself, equals the number 2. It may be written in mathematics as \sqrt or 2^, and is an algebraic number. Technically, it should be called the princip ...
, or approximately 1:1.41421. There are different series, as well as several extensions.
The following international paper sizes are included in
Cascading Style Sheets
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language such as HTML or XML (including XML dialects such as SVG, MathML or XHTML). CSS is a cornerstone techno ...
(CSS): ''A3'', ''A4'', ''A5'', ''B4'', ''B5''.
A series
![A size illustration2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/A_size_illustration2.svg)
There are 11 sizes in the A series, designated A0–A10, all of which have an aspect ratio of
, where ''a'' is the long side and ''b'' is the short side.
Since A series sizes share the same aspect ratio (), they can be scaled to other A-series sizes without being distorted, and two sheets can be reduced to fit on exactly one sheet without any cutoff or margins.
The A0 base size is defined as having an area of 1 m; given an aspect ratio of , the dimensions of A0 are:
:
by
.
or, rounded to the nearest millimetre, .
A series sizes are related in that the smaller dimension of a given size is the larger dimension of the next smaller size, and folding an A series sheet in half in its larger dimension—that is, folding it in half parallel to its short edge—results in two-halves that are each the size of the next smaller A series size. As such, a folded brochure of a given A-series size can be made by folding sheets of the next larger size in half, e.g. A4 sheets can be folded to make an A5 brochure. The fact that halving a sheet with an aspect ratio of results in two sheets that themselves both have an aspect ratio of is proven as follows:
:
where ''a'' is the long side and ''b'' is the short side. The aspect ratio for the new dimensions of the folded paper is:
:
The advantages of basing a paper size upon an aspect ratio of were first noted in 1786 by the German scientist and philosopher
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1 July 1742 – 24 February 1799) was a German physicist, satirist, and Anglophile. As a scientist, he was the first to hold a professorship explicitly dedicated to experimental physics in Germany. He is remembered for ...
. When a sheet is folded, the length to width ratio does not change.
The formats that became A2, A3, B3, B4 and B5 were developed in France, having been proposed by the mathematician
Lazare Carnot
Lazare Nicolas Marguerite, Count Carnot (; 13 May 1753 – 2 August 1823) was a French mathematician, physicist and politician. He was known as the "Organizer of Victory" in the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars.
Education and early ...
, and published for judicial purposes in 1798 during the
French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
.
Early in the 20th 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 and Austria.
The DIN 476 standard spread quickly to other countries. Before the outbreak of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, it had been adopted by the following countries:
*
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
(1924)
*
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
(1925)
*
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
(1926)
*
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
(1927)
* Sweden (1930)
*
Switzerland
). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
(1929)
*
Hungary
Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...
(1938)
* Italy (1939)
*
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
(1934)
During World War II, the standard was adopted by
Uruguay
Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...
(1942),
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
(1943) and Brazil (1943), and afterwards spread to other countries:
* Australia (1974)
*
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
(1948)
*
Bangladesh
Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
(1972)
*
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...
(1973)
* Chile (1968)
*
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
(1975)
*
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
(now
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
and
Slovakia
Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...
) (1953)
*
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
(1953)
*
Ecuador
Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...
(1974)
* France (1967)
*
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
(1970)
*
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
(1964)
*
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
(1957)
*
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
(1948)
* Ireland (1959)
* Israel (1954)
* Japan (1951)
*
Kuwait
Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...
(1975)
* Mexico (1965)
* New Zealand (1963)
*
Peru
, image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg
, image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg
, other_symbol = Great Seal of the State
, other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal
, national_motto = "Fi ...
(1967)
*
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
(1957)
*
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
(1954)
*
Rhodesia
Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of S ...
(now
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...
) (1970)
*
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
(1949)
* Singapore (1970)
* South Africa (1966)
* Spain (1947)
*
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
(1973)
*
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
(1967)
* United Kingdom (1971)
*
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
(1962)
*
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
(now
Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capit ...
,
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
,
Slovenia
Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...
,
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...
,
Montenegro
)
, image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Podgorica
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, official_languages = M ...
, and
North Macedonia
North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...
) (1956)
By 1975, so many countries were using the German system that it was established as an
ISO
ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization.
ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance
* Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007
* 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,
Costa Rica
Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...
,
Colombia
Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...
,
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
, Chile, and the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
, the
US letter
Letter or ANSI Letter is a paper size standard defined by the American National Standards Institute, commonly used as home or office stationery in the United States, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama, Guatemala, the Dominican ...
format is still in common use, despite their official adoption of the ISO standard.
The weight of an A-series sheet of a given
paper weight can be calculated by knowing the ratio of its size to the A0 sheet. For example, an A4 sheet is the size of an A0 sheet, so if it is made from 80 g/m paper, it weighs 5 g, which is of 80 g.
B series
![B size illustration2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/B_size_illustration2.svg)
The B series paper sizes are less common than the A series. They have the same aspect ratio of A series:
::
However, they have a different area. The area of B series sheets is in fact the
geometric mean of successive A series sheets. B1 is between A0 and A1 in size, with an area of 0.707 m ( m). As a result, B0 is 1 metre wide, and other sizes of the series are a half, a quarter, or further fractions of a metre wide: in general, every B size has exactly one side of length
for
. That side is the short side for B0, B2, B4, etc., and the long side for B1, B3, B5, etc.
While less common in-office use, the B series is used for a variety of special applications.
* B4, B5, and B6 are used for
envelope
An envelope is a common packaging item, usually made of thin, flat material. It is designed to contain a flat object, such as a letter or card.
Traditional envelopes are made from sheets of paper cut to one of three shapes: a rhombus, a sh ...
s that fit C-series envelopes.
* B5 is a relatively common choice for books.
* B7 is equal to the passport size ID-3 from
ISO/IEC 7810
ISO/IEC 7810 ''Identification cards — Physical characteristics'' is an international standard that defines the physical characteristics for identification cards.
The characteristics specified include:
* Physical dimensions
* Resistance to ...
.
* Many posters use B-series paper or a close approximation, such as 50 cm × 70 cm ~ B2.
The B-series is widely used in the printing industry to describe both paper sizes and
printing press
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in wh ...
sizes, including
digital presses. B3 paper is used to print two US letter or A4 pages side by side using
imposition
Imposition is one of the fundamental steps in the prepress printing process. It consists of the arrangement of the printed product’s pages on the printer’s sheet, in order to obtain faster printing, simplify binding and reduce paper waste.
...
; four pages would be printed on B2, eight on B1, etc.
C series
![C size illustration2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/C_size_illustration2.svg)
The C series is defined in
ISO 269
An envelope is a common packaging item, usually made of thin, flat material. It is designed to contain a flat object, such as a letter or card.
Traditional envelopes are made from sheets of paper cut to one of three shapes: a rhombus, a sh ...
, which was withdrawn in 2009 without a replacement, but is still specified in several national standards. It is primarily used for envelopes. 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 slightly smaller than B4. The practical usage of this is that a letter written on A4 paper fits inside a C4 envelope, and both A4 paper and C4 envelope fits inside a B4 envelope.
Some envelope formats with mixed sides from adjacent sizes (and thus an approximate aspect ratio of 2:1) are also defined in national adaptations of the ISO standard, e.g. DIN C6/C5 (also known as C65) is 114 mm × 229 mm where the common side to C5 and C6 is 162 mm. This format allows an envelope holding an A-sized paper folded in three, e.g. for the C65, an A4.
Overview of ISO paper sizes
The
variables are the distinct first terms in the three
geometric progression
In mathematics, a geometric progression, also known as a geometric sequence, is a sequence of non-zero numbers where each term after the first is found by multiplying the previous one by a fixed, non-zero number called the ''common ratio''. For ex ...
s of the same ''common-ratio'' equal to the square root of two. Each of the three geometric progressions (corresponding to the three
series A
A series A round (also known as series A financing or series A investment) is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exc ...
,
B,
C) is formed by all possible paper dimensions (length and width) of the series arranged in decreasing order. This interesting arrangement of dimensions is also very useful—not only it forms a geometric progression with easy to remember formulae, it also has that each consecutive pair of values (like a sliding window of size 2) will automatically correspond to the dimensions of a standard paper format in the series.
The
tolerances
Engineering tolerance is the permissible limit or limits of variation in:
# a physical dimension;
# a measured value or physical property of a material, manufacturing, manufactured object, system, or service;
# other measured values (such as t ...
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 original
The German standard DIN 476 was published on 18 August 1922 and is the original specification of the
A,
B and
C sizes. In 1991, it was split into DIN 476-1 for the A and B formats and 476-2 for the C series. The former has been withdrawn in 2002 in favor of adopting the international standard as DIN EN ISO 216, but part 2 has been retained and was last updated in 2008.
The first and the second editions of DIN 476 from 1922 and 1925 also included a D series.
The smallest formats specified originally were A13 and B13, which were reduced to x10 in the 1930 edition, as well as C8 and D8; C9 and C10 have been added in the 1976 revision for compatibility with photography sizes: C8 closely matches
6×9 photos, C9 and C10 closely match 7×7 and 5×5
slides, respectively.
DIN 476 provides for formats larger than A0, denoted by a prefix factor. In particular, it lists the formats 2A0 and 4A0, which are twice and four times the size of A0 respectively.
However, ISO 216:2007 notes 2A0 and 4A0 in the table of ''Main series of trimmed sizes'' (ISO A series) as well: "The rarely used sizes
A0 and 4A0
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes'' ...
which follow also belong to this series."
DIN 476 also used to specify slightly tighter tolerances than ISO 216:
* ±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).
There used to be a standard, DIN 198, that was just a table of recommended A series formats for a number of business applications. The 1976 edition of this standard introduced a size A4 and suggested it for some forms and slips.
Swedish extensions
![SIS 014711 Paper Sizes](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/SIS_014711_Paper_Sizes.svg)
The Swedish standard
SIS 01 47 11
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, F4, B4, G4, D4, *H4, A3 is a
geometric progression
In mathematics, a geometric progression, also known as a geometric sequence, is a sequence of non-zero numbers where each term after the first is found by multiplying the previous one by a fixed, non-zero number called the ''common ratio''. For ex ...
, in which the dimensions grow by a factor from one size to the next. However, this SIS 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 (169 × 239 mm) and E5 (155 × 220 mm) are popular in Sweden and the Netherlands for printing dissertations, but the other formats have not turned out to be particularly useful in practice. They have not been adopted internationally and the Swedish standard has been withdrawn.
The Swedish and
German D series basically contain the same sizes but are offset by one, i.e. DIN D4 equals SIS D5 and so on.
Japanese variation
The Japanese standard
JIS P 0138 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 (instead of the factor = 1.414... for the
ISO B-series), 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 the A-series paper. Both A- and B-series paper are widely available in Japan,
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
and China, and most photocopiers are loaded with at least A4 and either one of A3, B4, and B5 paper.
Cascading Style Sheets
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language such as HTML or XML (including XML dialects such as SVG, MathML or XHTML). CSS is a cornerstone techno ...
(CSS) only supports the most popular sizes, ''JIS-B4'' and ''JIS-B5''.
A popular size for books, dubbed AB, combines the shorter edges of A4 and B4. Another two with an aspect ratio approximating
16:9 are 20% narrower variants of A6 and B6, respectively, the latter resulting from cutting JIS B1 into sheets (thus "B40").
There are also a number of traditional paper sizes, which are now used mostly by printers. The most common of these old series is the
Shiroku-ban and the Kiku paper sizes.
Chinese extensions
The Chinese standard GB/T 148–1997, which replaced GB 148–1989, documents the standard ISO series, A and B, but adds a custom D series. This Chinese format originates from the
Republic of China (1912–1949)
The Republic of China (ROC), between 1912 and 1949, was a sovereign state recognised as the official designation of China when it was based on Mainland China, prior to the Retreat of the government of the Republic of China to Taiwan, relocat ...
. The D series is not identical to the German or Swedish D series. It does not strictly follow the same principles as ISO paper sizes: The aspect ratio is only very roughly . The short side of the size is always 4 mm longer than the long side of the next smaller size. The long side of the size is always exactly – i.e. without further rounding – twice as long as the short side of the next smaller size.
Indian variants
The ''Bureau of Indian Standards'' recommends the "ISO-A series" size of drawing sheet for engineering drawing works. The Bureau of Indian Standards specifies all the recommendations for engineering drawing sheets in its bulletin IS 10711: 2001.
The Bureau extended the ISO-A series with a Special Elongated Sizes (Second Choice). These sizes are achieved by increasing the shorter dimensions of a sheet of the ISO A series to lengths that are multiples of the shorter dimensions of the chosen basic sheet. These sizes are used when a sheet of greater length is needed.
There is also a Exceptional Elongated Sizes (Third Choice). These sizes are obtained by increasing the shorter dimensions of a sheet of the ISO-A series to lengths that are multiples of the shorter dimensions of the chosen basic sheet. These sizes are used when a very large or extra elongated sheet is needed.
Soviet variants
The first standard of paper size in the Soviet Union was OST 303 in 1926. Six years later, it was replaced by OST 5115 which generally followed DIN 476 principles, but used Cyrillic lowercase letters instead of Latin uppercase, had the second row shifted so that б
0 (B0) roughly corresponded to B1 and, more importantly, had slightly different sizes:
The general adaptation of ISO 216 in the Soviet Union, which replaced OST 5115, was GOST 9327. In its 1960 version, it lists formats down to A13, B12 and C8 and also specifies , and prefixes for halving the shorter side (repeatedly) for stripe formats, e.g. A4 = 105 mm × 297 mm.
![Old Soviet standard for paper sizes](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Old_Soviet_standard_for_paper_sizes.svg)
A standard for technical drawings from 1960, GOST 3450, introduces alternative numeric format designations to deal with very high or very wide sheets.
These 2-digit codes are based upon A4 = "11": The first digit is the factor the longer side (297 mm) is multiplied by and the second digit is the one for the shorter side (210 mm), so "24" is 2×297 mm × 4×210 mm = 594 mm × 840 mm.
![A4x8 a3x5 a2x4](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4d/A4x8_a3x5_a2x4.png)
GOST 3450 from 1960 was replaced by ESKD GOST 2301 in 1968, but the numeric designations remained in popular use much longer.
The new designations were not purely numeric but consisted of the ISO label followed by an 'x', or possibly the multiplication sign '×', and the factor, e.g. DIN 2A0 = GOST A0×2, but DIN 4A0 ≠ GOST A0×4, also listed are: A0×3, A1×3, A1×4, A2×3–A2×5, A3×3–A3×7, A4×3–A4×9. The formats ...×1 and ...×2 usually would be aliases for existing formats.
Elongated sizes
ISO 5457, last updated in 1999,
introduces elongated sizes that are formed by a combination of the dimensions of the short side of an A-size (e.g. A2) with the dimensions of the long side of another larger A-size (e.g. A0). The result is a new size, for example with the abbreviation A2.0 we would have a mm size.
![ISO 5457 elongated paper sizes](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/ISO_5457_elongated_paper_sizes.svg)
These drawing paper sizes have been adopted by
ANSI/ASME Y14.1M for use in the United States, alongside A0 through A4 and aloongside inch-based sizes.
International envelope and insert sizes
![DIN_5008,_Form_A](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/DIN_5008%2C_Form_A.svg)
DIN 5008 (previously DIN 676) prescribes, among many other things, two variants, A and B, for the location of the address field on the first page of a business letter and how to fold the A4 sheet accordingly, so the only part visible of the main content is the subject line.
International raw sizes
ISO 5457 specifies drawing paper sizes with a trimmed size equal to the A series sizes from A4 upward. The untrimmed sizes are 3 to 4 cm larger and rounded to the nearest centimeter. A0 through A3 are used in landscape orientation, while A4 is used in portrait orientation. Designations for preprinted drawing paper include the base sizes and a suffix, either ''T'' for trimmed or ''U'' for untrimmed sheets.
The withdrawn standard ISO 2784 did specify sizes of continuous, fan-fold forms based upon whole inches as was common for paper in continuous lengths in automatic data processing (ADP) equipment. Specifically, 12 inches (304.8 mm) were considered an untrimmed variant of the A4 height of 297 mm.
Transitional paper sizes
PA4 or L4
A transitional size called PA4 (), sometimes dubbed L4, was proposed for inclusion into the ISO 216 standard in 1975. It has the height of Canadian P4 paper (215 mm × 280 mm, about in × 11 in) and the width of international A4 paper (), i.e. it uses the smaller value among the two for each side. The table 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 decided that the set of standardized paper formats should be kept to the minimum necessary. However, PA4 remains of practical use today. In
landscape
A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...
orientation, it has the same 4:3 aspect ratio as the displays of traditional TV sets, some
computer displays
A computer monitor is an output device that displays information in pictorial or textual form. A discrete monitor comprises a visual display, support electronics, power supply, housing, electrical connectors, and external user controls.
The ...
(e.g. the
iPad
The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating s ...
) and
data projectors. PA4, with appropriate
margin
Margin may refer to:
Physical or graphical edges
*Margin (typography), the white space that surrounds the content of a page
*Continental margin, the zone of the ocean floor that separates the thin oceanic crust from thick continental crust
*Leaf ...
s is, therefore, a good choice as the format of presentation slides.
As a compromise between the two most popular paper sizes globally, PA4 is used today by many international magazines, because it can be printed easily on equipment designed for either A4 or US Letter. That means it is not as much a paper size as a page format. Apple, for instance, requires this format for digital music album booklets.
The size 210 mm × 280 mm was documented in the Canadian standard CAN2-200.2-M79 "Common Image Area for Paper Sizes P4 and A4".
F4
A non-standard F4 paper size is common in Southeast Asia. It is a transitional size with the shorter side from ISO A4 (210 mm, inch) and the longer side from British Foolscap (13-inch, 330 mm) and is sometimes known as (metric) foolscap or folio as well. It is exactly , i.e. 33 mm, longer than A4 or, conversely, A4 is exactly 90% the height of F4.
In Indonesia and the Philippines, "F4" paper is slightly broader: 215 × 330 mm, i.e. basically
Foolscap 8.5 × 13 in. In Indonesia it is sometimes called ''folio'', while in Philippines it is sometimes also called ''long bond''.
A sheet of F4 can be cut from a sheet of SRA4 with very little wastage. The size is also smaller than its
Swedish equivalent SIS F4 at 239 mm × 338 mm.
Weltformat
The Weltformat (''world format'') was developed by German chemist
Wilhelm Ostwald
Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald (; 4 April 1932) was a Baltic German chemist and German philosophy, philosopher. Ostwald is credited with being one of the founders of the field of physical chemistry, with Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, Walther Nernst, ...
in 1911 as part of
Die Brücke
The Brücke (Bridge), also Künstlergruppe Brücke or KG Brücke was a group of German expressionist artists formed in Dresden in 1905. Founding members were Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Later memb ...
, around the same time DIN 476 was first discussed. It shares the same design primitives, especially the aspect ratio, but is based upon 1 cm as the short edge of the smallest size. Sizes were designated by roman numerals.
The result, for the fourth through fourteenth size, is close to the DIN/ISO C series.
The sizes have been used for some print products in the early 20th century in central Europe but got replaced by DIN sizes almost entirely. However, it was successfully adopted from 1913 onwards for posters and placards in Switzerland. Even today the default size for posters in Swiss advertisements is 905 mm × 1280 mm, i.e. size XIV, but now simply known as ''Weltformat''.
A0a
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 for board size. This is a little larger than ISO A0, 841 mm × 1189 mm. So for a short time, a size called A0a of was used in Britain, which is actually just a slightly shorter version of ISO B0 at 1414 mm.
Pliego
The most common paper sizes used for commercial and industrial printing in Colombia are based upon a size referred to as ''pliego'' that is ISO B1 (707 mm × 1000 mm) cut to full decimetres. Smaller sizes are derived by halving as usual and just get a
vulgar fraction
A fraction (from la, fractus, "broken") represents a part of a whole or, more generally, any number of equal parts. When spoken in everyday English, a fraction describes how many parts of a certain size there are, for example, one-half, eight ...
prefix: '' pliego'' and '' pliego''.
K
In East Asia, i.e. Japan, Taiwan, and China in particular, there is a number of similar paper sizes in common use for book-making and other purposes.
Confusingly, a single designation is often used with slightly different edge measures: The base sheet is labeled 1K (or , where ''K'' stands for ; or in Japanese); all smaller sizes derived by halving have the power of two number, ''i'' = 2
''n'', in front of the uppercase letter ''K''. The number in ISO designations, in contrast, is the exponent ''n'' that would yield the number of sheets cut from the base sizes.
The sizes of such folios depend on the base sheet. Pre-metric standards include:
* The imperial 菊判 (''kiku-ban''), named after the ''
Chrysanthemum
Chrysanthemums (), sometimes called mums or chrysanths, are flowering plants of the genus ''Chrysanthemum'' in the family Asteraceae. They are native to East Asia and northeastern Europe. Most species originate from East Asia and the center ...
'' watermark on imperial paper, measuring 636mm × 939mm.
* The four-by-six 四六判 ''shi-roku-ban'' (4×6 or 4/6), where the final size at 32K was measured 4 by 6
sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
, c. mm, or slightly more, mm i.e. sun.
** In Taiwan, the traditional base size 1K inherited from Japan is sometimes quoted as measuring inches exactly, which is off by c. 1 millimeter from the commonly quoted metric base size of mm, which is directly derived from
''sun'' or
''shaku''.
* The three-by-five 三五判 (3×5 or 3/5), where the final size at 32K is slightly less than 3 by 5 sun, often given as mm which would be c. ''sun''.
The 4/6 standard has given rise to newer metric book-size standards, including:
* The modern Japanese size for books, simply labeled ''B'' and is specified as millimeters. It is not directly related to the similar
JIS B series, where B1 is slightly smaller.
* The Chinese
SAC D series.
North American paper sizes
Inch-based loose sizes
The United States, Canada, and the Philippines
[Belize, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Philippines, Puerto Rico, United States, Venezuela according to , which is a data collection used by almost all software manufacturers.] primarily use a different system of paper sizes from the rest of the world. The current standard sizes are unique to those countries, although due to the size of the North American market and proliferation of both software and printing hardware from the region, other parts of the world have become increasingly familiar with these sizes (though not necessarily the paper itself). Some traditional North American inch-based sizes differ from the
Imperial British sizes described below.
Common American loose sizes
''Letter, Legal'' and ''Ledger/Tabloid'' are by far the most commonly used of these for everyday activities, and the only ones included in
Cascading Style Sheets
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the presentation of a document written in a markup language such as HTML or XML (including XML dialects such as SVG, MathML or XHTML). CSS is a cornerstone techno ...
(CSS).
The origins of the exact dimensions of Letter size paper are lost in tradition and not well documented. The American Forest and Paper Association argues that the dimension originates from the days of manual papermaking and that the 11-inch length of the page is about a quarter of "the average maximum stretch of an experienced vatman's arms."
However, this does not explain the width or aspect ratio.
Outside of North America, Letter size may also be known as "American Quarto". If one accepts some trimming, the size is indeed one quarter of the old Imperial paper size known as Demy, .
Manufacturers of computer printers, however, recognize inch-based ''Quarto'' as or long.
Usage and adoption
US paper sizes are currently standard in the United States and are the most commonly used formats at least in the Philippines, most of
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. W ...
and Chile. The latter use US Letter, but their Legal size is 13 inches tall (recognized as ''Foolscap'' by printer manufacturers,
i.e. one inch shorter than its US equivalent.
Mexico and Colombia, for instance, have adopted the ISO standard, but the US Letter format is still the system in use throughout the country. It is rare to encounter ISO standard papers in day-to-day uses, with ''Carta'' (Letter), ''Oficio'' (Government-Legal), and ''Doble carta'' (Ledger/Tabloid) being nearly universal.
Printer manufacturers, however, recognize ''Oficio'' as long.
In Canada, select US paper sizes are a ''de facto'' standard.
Variant American loose sizes
There is an additional paper size, , to which the name ''Government-Letter'' was given by the
IEEE
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...
Printer Working Group
The Printer Working Group (PWG) is a Program of the IEEE Industry Standard and Technology Organization (ISTO) with members including printer and multi-function device manufacturers, print server developers, operating system providers, print manag ...
(PWG).
It was prescribed by
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...
when he was
Secretary of Commerce to be used for US government forms, apparently to enable discounts from the purchase of paper for schools, but more likely due to the standard use of trimming books (after binding) and paper from the standard letter size paper to produce consistency and allow "bleed" printing. In later years, as photocopy machines proliferated, citizens wanted to make photocopies of the forms, but the machines did not generally have this size of paper in their bins.
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
therefore had the US government switch to regular Letter size, which is half an inch both longer and wider.
The former government size is still commonly used in spiral-bound
notebook
A notebook (also known as a notepad, writing pad, drawing pad, or legal pad) is a book or stack of paper pages that are often ruled and used for purposes such as note-taking, journaling or other writing, drawing, or scrapbooking.
History
...
s, for children's writing and the like, a result of trimming from the current Letter dimensions.
By extension of the American standards, the halved Letter size, , meets the needs of many applications. It is variably known as ''Statement'', ''Stationery'', ''Memo'', ''Half Letter'', ''Half A'' (from ANSI sizes) or simply ''Half Size'', and as ''Invoice'' by printer manufacturers.
Like the similar-sized ISO A5, it is used for everything from personal letter writing to official aeronautical maps. Organizers, notepads, and diaries also often use this size of paper; thus 3-ring
binders
Ring binders (loose leaf binders, looseleaf binders, or sometimes called files in Britain) are large folders that contain file folders or hole punched papers. These binders come in various sizes and can accommodate an array of paper sizes. The ...
are also available in this size. Booklets of this size are created using word processing tools with landscape printing in two columns on letter paper which are then cut or folded into the final size.
A foot-long sheet with the common width of Letter and (Government) Legal, i.e. , would have an aspect ratio very close to the square root of two as used by international paper sizes and would actually almost exactly match
ISO RA4 (215 mm × 305 mm). This size is sometimes known as ''European Fanfold''.
While ''Executive'' refers to in America, the Japanese organization for standardization specified it as , which is elsewhere known as Government Legal or Foolscap.
Standardized American paper sizes
![ANSI size illustration2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/ANSI_size_illustration2.svg)
In 1996, the
American National Standards Institute
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI ) is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organi ...
adopted
ANSI/ASME Y14.1 which defined a regular series of paper sizes based upon the ''de facto'' standard Letter size which it assigned "ANSI A", intended for technical drawings, hence sometimes labeled "Engineering". 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 and therefore also includes Ledger/Tabloid
as "ANSI B". Unlike the ISO standard, however, the arbitrary base sides forces this series to have two alternating aspect ratios. For example, ANSI A is less elongated than A4, while ANSI B is more elongated than A3.
The Canadian standard CAN2 9.60-M76 and its successor CAN/CGSB 9.60-94 "Paper Sizes for Correspondence" specified paper sizes P1 through P6, which are the U.S. paper sizes rounded to the nearest 5 mm. All custom Canadian paper size standards were withdrawn in 2012.
[
]
With care, documents can be prepared so that the text and images fit on either ANSI or their equivalent ISO sheets at a 1:1 reproduction scale.
Other, informal, larger sizes continuing the alphabetic series illustrated above exist, but they are not part of the series ''per se'', because they do not exhibit the same aspect ratios. For example, Engineering F size is with ca. 1.4286:1; it is commonly required for
NAVFAC drawings, but is generally less commonly used. Engineering G size is high, but it is a roll format with a variable width up to in increments of . Engineering H through N sizes are also roll formats.
Such huge sheets were at one time used for full-scale layouts of aircraft parts, automotive parts, wiring harnesses, and the like, but are slowly being phased out, due to widespread use of
computer-aided design
Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve c ...
(CAD) and
computer-aided manufacturing
Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) also known as computer-aided modeling or computer-aided machining is the use of software to control machine tools in the manufacturing of work pieces. This is not the only definition for CAM, but it is the most ...
(CAM). Some visual arts fields also continue to use these paper formats for large-scale printouts, such as for displaying digitally painted character renderings at life-size as references for makeup artists and costume designers or to provide an immersive landscape reference.
Architectural sizes
![ARCH PAPER SIZES v3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/ARCH_PAPER_SIZES_v3.svg)
In addition to the system as listed above, there is a corresponding series of paper sizes used for
architectural
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings o ...
purposes defined in the same standard, ANSI/ASME Y14.1, which is usually abbreviated "Arch". This series also shares the property that bisecting each size produces two of the size below, with alternating aspect ratios. 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.
The size Arch E1 has a different aspect ratio because it derives from adding 6 inches to each side of Arch D or subtracting the same amount from Arch E. Printer manufacturer recognize it as ''wide-format''.
An intermediate size between Arch C and D with a long side of does not exist.
Demitab
The demitab or demi-tab (from the French "demi" for half tabloid) is , i.e. roughly one half of a sheet of tabloid-size paper.
"Demitab", "
broadsheet
A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long Vertical and horizontal, vertical pages, typically of . Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner (format), Berliner and Tabloid (newspaper format), ta ...
" or
"tabloid" format newspapers are not necessarily printed on paper measuring exactly their nominal size.
Notebook sizes
The sizes listed above are for paper sold loose in
ream
Ream may refer to:
* Paper ream, unit of 500 sheets of paper
* Ream (surname)
* Reamer, tool used to widen a hole
* Ream, West Virginia
Ream is an unincorporated community in McDowell County, West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in th ...
s. There are many sizes of
tablets of paper, that is, sheets of paper bound at one edge, usually by a strip of plastic or hardened
PVA adhesive. Often there is a pad of
cardboard
Cardboard is a generic term for heavy paper-based products. The construction can range from a thick paper known as paperboard to corrugated fiberboard which is made of multiple plies of material. Natural cardboards can range from grey to light ...
(also known as paperboard 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
non-repro 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
A Post-it Note (or sticky note) is a small piece of paper with a re-adherable strip of glue on its back, made for temporarily attaching notes to documents and other surfaces. A low-tack pressure-sensitive adhesive allows the notes to be easil ...
" or "Stick-Em" and available in various sizes, serve as a sort of tablet.
"Letter pads" are , while the term "legal pad" is often used by laymen to refer to pads of various sizes including those of .
Stenographers
Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''st ...
use "steno pads" of .
Envelope sizes
This implies that all postcards have an aspect ratio in the range from = 1.18 to = 1.71, but the machinable aspect ratio is further restricted to a minimum of 1.30.
The only ISO 216 size in the US postcard range is A6.
The theoretical maximum aspect ratio for enveloped letters is = 3.29, but is explicitly limited to 2.50.
Personal organizer sizes
Index card sizes
Photography sizes
Grain
Most industry standards express the direction of the
grain
A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legum ...
last when giving dimensions (that is, 17 × 11 inches is short grain paper and 11 × 17 inches is long grain paper), although alternatively the grain alignment can be explicitly indicated with an underline (
11 × 17 is a short grain) or the letter "M" for "machine" (11M × 17 is a short grain). Grain is important because the paper will crack if folded across the grain: for example, if a sheet 17 × 11 inches is to be folded to divide the sheet into two 8.5 × 11 halves, then the grain will be along the 11-inch side.
Paper intended to be fed into a machine that will bend the paper around rollers, such as a
printing press
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in wh ...
,
photocopier
A photocopier (also called copier or copy machine, and formerly Xerox machine, the generic trademark) is a machine that makes copies of documents and other visual images onto paper or plastic film quickly and cheaply. Most modern photocopiers u ...
or
typewriter
A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for typing characters. Typically, a typewriter has an array of keys, and each one causes a different single character to be produced on paper by striking an inked ribbon selectivel ...
, should be fed grain edge first so that the axis of the rollers is along the grain.
Traditional inch-based paper sizes
![Paper size - US system](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Paper_size_-_US_system.svg)
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 × inches. Royal sizes were used for posters and billboards.
Imperial sizes were used in the United Kingdom and its territories and some survived in US book printing.
Traditional British paper sizes
Traditional British paper sizes are referred to by the number of sheets that can be cut from a sheet of uncut paper. The standard Imperial uncut paper sizes are "foolscap", "post", and "copy". Each uncut sheet can then be halved into
folios
The term "folio" (), has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book ma ...
, quartered into
quartos, or eigthed into
octavos.
Foolscap folio and quarto are similar in size to the modern A4 and A5 papers, with the latter in particular often being used for letter-writing and referred to a Kings paper.
Traditional French paper sizes
Before the adoption of the ISO standard system in 1967, France had its own paper size system. Raisin format is still in use today for artistic paper. All are standardized by the
AFNOR
Association Française de Normalisation (AFNOR, English: French Standardization Association) is a Paris-based standards organization and a member body for France at the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
The AFNOR Group develo ...
. Their names come from the
watermark
A watermark is an identifying image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light (or when viewed by reflected light, atop a dark background), caused by thickness or density variations ...
s that the papers were branded with when they were handcrafted, which is still the case for certain art papers. They also generally exist in double versions where the smallest measure is multiplied by two, or in quadruple versions where both measures have been doubled.
Business card sizes
The international business card has the size of the smallest rectangle containing a credit card rounded to full millimeters, but in Western Europe, it is rounded to half centimeters (rounded up in Northern Europe), in Eastern Europe to full centimeters, in North America to half inches. However, ''credit card size'', as defined in
ISO/IEC 7810
ISO/IEC 7810 ''Identification cards — Physical characteristics'' is an international standard that defines the physical characteristics for identification cards.
The characteristics specified include:
* Physical dimensions
* Resistance to ...
, also specifies rounded corners and thickness.
Newspaper sizes
Newspapers have a separate set of sizes.
*
Compact
Compact as used in politics may refer broadly to a pact or treaty; in more specific cases it may refer to:
* Interstate compact
* Blood compact, an ancient ritual of the Philippines
* Compact government, a type of colonial rule utilized in British ...
: AR 1.54
*
Berliner
Berliner is most often used to designate a citizen of Berlin, Germany
Berliner may also refer to:
People
* Berliner (surname)
Places
* Berliner Lake, a lake in Minnesota, United States
* Berliner Philharmonie, concert hall in Berlin, Germany
...
: aspect ratio is 1.5
*
Rhenish
The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section.
Term
Historically, the Rhinelands ...
: AR 1.4–1.5
*
Tabloid 1.34
*
Broadsheet
A broadsheet is the largest newspaper format and is characterized by long Vertical and horizontal, vertical pages, typically of . Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner (format), Berliner and Tabloid (newspaper format), ta ...
: aspect ratio 1.25
In a recent trend
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
*
Book size
The size of a book is generally measured by the height against the width of a leaf, or sometimes the height and width of its cover. A series of terms is commonly used by libraries and publishers for the general sizes of modern books, ranging from ...
*
Continuous stationery
Continuous stationery (UK) or continuous form paper (US) is paper which is designed for use with dot-matrix and line printers with appropriate paper-feed mechanisms. Other names include ''fan-fold paper'', ''sprocket-feed paper'', ''burst paper' ...
*
Hole punch
A hole punch, also known as hole puncher, or paper puncher, is an office tool that is used to create holes in sheets of paper, often for the purpose of collecting the sheets in a binder or folder. A ''hole punch'' can also refer to similar t ...
– filing holes
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New Zealand standard for school stationery
The New Zealand standard for school stationery (known formally as NZS 8132:1984 - Specification for school stationery) was established in 1984 by the 'Standards Association Ltd', New Zealand's national standards body. It specifies various types of ...
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PC LOAD LETTER
PC LOAD LETTER is a printer error message that has entered popular culture as a technology meme referring to a confusing or inappropriate error message. The error message's vagueness was mocked in the 1999 comedy film ''Office Space''.
The messa ...
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Paper density
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Units of paper quantity
Various measures of paper quantity have been and are in use. Although there are no S.I. units such as quires and bales, there are ISO''ISO 4046-3:2002 Paper, board, pulps and related terms – Vocabulary – Part 3: Paper-making terminology'' (20 ...
– ream, quire etc.
References
Further reading
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International standard
international standard is a technical standard developed by one or more international standards organizations. International standards are available for consideration and use worldwide. The most prominent such organization is the International Or ...
ISO 216
ISO 216 is an international standard for paper sizes, used around the world except in North America and parts of Latin America. The standard defines the "A", "B" and "C" series of paper sizes, including A4, the most commonly available paper size ...
, Writing paper and certain classes of printed matter—Trimmed sizes—A and B series.
International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Membership requirements are given in Ar ...
, Geneva, 1975.
* International standard ISO 217: Paper—Untrimmed sizes—Designation and tolerances for primary and supplementary ranges, and an indication of machine direction.
International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Membership requirements are given in Ar ...
, Geneva, 1995.
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* (54 pages)
External links
* Notably: About margin settings for using just the space common to both A4 and US Letter.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Paper Size
Book design
Mechanical standards
Paper
Stationery
Technical drawing