{"id":276,"date":"2015-10-03T11:42:28","date_gmt":"2015-10-03T11:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/copyexpressold\/?p=276"},"modified":"2021-08-31T03:22:02","modified_gmt":"2021-08-31T03:22:02","slug":"the-a-b-cs-of-paper-sizes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.copyexpress.co.nz\/blog\/the-a-b-cs-of-paper-sizes\/","title":{"rendered":"The A B C\u2019s of Paper Sizes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why is A4 smaller than A3 paper? Why is there a still a Foolscap refill pad size for school? Why does the printing company squash my flyer or not print it at all when it looked fine on the computer screen? When I need to send a greeting card, what is the right size envelope to pick? These and many other questions about paper sizes will be answered in this informative article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The A size was introduced by the Germans in 1922 and you can read up about\u00a0Paper Sizes<\/a><\/span> in the Wikipedia to find out it\u2019s history. In a nutshell it was found by using a very simple mathematical equation you can have a rectangle that when you divide the long edge in half or multiply the short edge by two this will always give your the same proportional size but halving or doubling the total area of paper. Because it\u2019s always more economical for a printer to print multiple copies of a page on a larger sheet of paper than to print it on a smaller sheet more times, the number scale used for it is keeps halving the page size as the number increases. A0 is roughly one square meter of paper, while A1 is half that or \u00bdm 2 , A2 is 1 2 2 or \u00bcm 2 so on to A4 (which everyone uses) is 1 2 2 2 2 or 1 over 2 4 or 1m \/ 16m 2 \u00a0of paper. This sizing keep getting smaller till we reach A8 which is 52mm \u00d7 74mm (smaller than a business card) in size or 1\/256 of a square meter of paper. With improvements in printing and paper manufacturing technology the A sizes go larger too, 2A0 and 4A0. 4A0 is 4m 2 of paper or a sheet roughly 1.7 \u00d7 2.4 metres in size. Another reason why this standard was quickly adopted around the world was because the thickness and cost of paper is measured by weight, it made it very easy to work out costs no matter what size the finished sheet size is. So that\u2019s why we use\u00a0Grams per Square Metre<\/i>\u00a0when we talk about paper weight\/thickness because we know that a 80gsm sheet of A4 paper weighs 5 grams because 80 16 = 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may never come across the B ranges of paper sizes unless you work in the printing industry. They are basically an oversized version of the A sizes to allow for such things a bleed and ganging up of complex documents. For instance a B4 is 250 \u00d7 353mm in size making giving at least 20mm around each edge for bleed or binding needs. The next common size you will encounter is the C sizes which have been created for the purpose of sizing envelopes. Their measurements sit between the ones used for A & B sizes. In practical terms all you need to remember is the C size will hold the A size flat. For example a C5 envelope holds an A5 sheet of paper flat or a A4 folded in half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From there we start going into the more interesting paper sizes, which are combination of legacies from traditions centuries old, concessions to technical practically of their times, and countries needs to be unique. I\u2019m only going to briefly touch on the few most common ones you will encounter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n