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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 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" 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 sho ...
.


International paper sizes

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, 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

There are 11 sizes in the A series, designated A0–A10, all of which have an aspect ratio of \frac = \sqrt \approx 1.41421\ldots, 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: : \sqrt \,\mathrm by \frac1\sqrt \,\mathrm. 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: : \frac = \sqrt, where ''a'' is the long side and ''b'' is the short side. The aspect ratio for the new dimensions of the folded paper is: : \frac = 2\frac = 2\frac = \sqrt = \frac. 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. 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, and published for judicial purposes in 1798 during the French Revolution. 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, it had been adopted by the following countries: * Belgium (1924) * Netherlands (1925) * Norway (1926) * Finland (1927) * Sweden (1930) * Switzerland (1929) * Hungary (1938) * Italy (1939) * Soviet Union (1934) During World War II, the standard was adopted by Uruguay (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 c ...
(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 (1975) * Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic and Slovakia) (1953) * Denmark (1953) * Ecuador (1974) * France (1967) * Greece (1970) * Iceland (1964) * India (1957) * Iran (1948) * Ireland (1959) * Israel (1954) * Japan (1951) * Kuwait (1975) * Mexico (1965) * New Zealand (1963) * Peru (1967) * Poland (1957) * Portugal (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'' Succession of states, successor state to th ...
(now Zimbabwe) (1970) * Romania (1949) * Singapore (1970) * South Africa (1966) * Spain (1947) * Thailand (1973) * Turkey (1967) * United Kingdom (1971) * Venezuela (1962) * Yugoslavia (now Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia,
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 He ...
, Montenegro, and North Macedonia) (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 * Is ...
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, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, and the Philippines, 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

The B series paper sizes are less common than the A series. They have the same aspect ratio of A series: ::\frac=\sqrt = 1.41... However, they have a different area. The area of B series sheets is in fact the
geometric mean In mathematics, the geometric mean is a mean or average which indicates a central tendency of a set of numbers by using the product of their values (as opposed to the arithmetic mean which uses their sum). The geometric mean is defined as the ...
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 \frac for n \in \mathbb. 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 sho ...
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. * 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 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

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 sho ...
, 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 \alpha variables are the distinct first terms in the three geometric progressions of the same ''common-ratio'' equal to the square root of two. Each of the three geometric progressions (corresponding to the three series A, 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, manufactured object, system, or service; # other measured values (such as temperature, hum ...
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 4A0which 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

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 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 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 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 б0 (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. 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. 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. 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 (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 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. Th ...
(e.g. the iPad) and
data projector A video projector is an image projector that receives a video signal and projects the corresponding image on a projection screen using a lens system. Video projectors use a very bright ultra-high-performance lamp (a special mercury arc lamp), Xe ...
s. PA4, with appropriate margins 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 philosopher. Ostwald is credited with being one of the founders of the field of physical chemistry, with Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, Walther Nernst, and Svante Arrhen ...
in 1911 as part of Die Brücke, 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 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 o ...
'' 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, 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 PhilippinesBelize, 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 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
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 when he was
Secretary of Commerce The United States secretary of commerce (SecCom) is the head of the United States Department of Commerce. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters relating to commerce. The secretary rep ...
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 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 notebooks, 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 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

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

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 pages, typically of . Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner and tabloid–compact formats. Description Many broadsheets measure roughly ...
" 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, the name of Rama in the Khmer version of the Ramayana, the Reamker ''Reamker'' ( km, រាមក� ...
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 br ...
(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 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 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, photocopier or typewriter, should be fed grain edge first so that the axis of the rollers is along the grain.


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 × 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 develop ...
. Their names come from the watermarks 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, 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 Britis ...
: 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 pages, typically of . Other common newspaper formats include the smaller Berliner and tabloid–compact formats. Description Many broadsheets measure roughly ...
: 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 *
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 ...
*
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 ...
*
Paper density Paper density is a paper product's mass per unit volume. The density can be calculated by dividing the grammage of paper (in grams per square metre or "gsm") by its caliper (usually in micrometres, occasionally in mils). The " ISO 534:2011, Pap ...
*
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'' (2 ...
– ream, quire etc.


References


Further reading

* International standard
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, 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, Geneva, 1995. * * (54 pages)


External links

* Notably: About margin settings for using just the space common to both A4 and US Letter. * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Paper Size Book design Mechanical standards Paper Stationery Technical drawing