🚀 go-pugleaf

Everyone uses them each day, but nobody knows the sizes, so here is a
list for the USENET community. Please proof read it, before I'll include
it in the standards FAQ.

Markus

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International paper formats
---------------------------

The paper end formats defined by ISO in the A, B and C series are used
today in nearly all countries apart from North America.

The formats have been determined according to the following rules:

  - A0 has an area of one square meter.
  - The format of all members of the A, B and C series is 1 : sqrt(2).
  - You get the next higher format by cutting the paper in two
    equal pieces parallel to the shorter side. This results again in
    an 1 : sqrt(2) format (that's the big advantage of this format).
  - The size of a B paper is the geometric mean between the size of
    the corresponding A paper and the next bigger A paper. E.g.
    B1 is between A1 and A0.
  - The size of a C paper is the geometric mean between the size of
    the A and B paper with the same number.

The following table lists the paper sizes rounded to an integral number
of millimeters, which is the official definition:

      4 A0 1682 x 2378
      2 A0 1189 x 1682
        A0  841 x 1189       B0 1000 x 1414       C0  917 x 1297
        A1  594 x 841        B1  707 x 1000       C1  648 x 917
        A2  420 x 594        B2  500 x 707        C2  458 x 648
        A3  297 x 420        B3  353 x 500        C3  324 x 458
        A4  210 x 297        B4  250 x 353        C4  229 x 324
        A5  148 x 210        B5  176 x 250        C5  162 x 229
        A6  105 x 148        B6  125 x 176        C6  114 x 162
        A7   74 x 105        B7   88 x 125        C7   81 x 114
        A8   52 x 74         B8   62 x 88         C8   57 x 81
        A9   37 x 52         B9   44 x 62         C9   40 x 57
        A10  26 x 37         B10  31 x 44         C10  28 x 40

The most popular sizes are perhaps:

        A0        technical drawings
        A4        letters, magazines, documents
        A5        books
        C4,C5,C6  envelopes
        B4,A3     supported by many copy machines, newspapers

There are also stripe formats possible, e.g.

    1/3 A4   99 x 210
    2/3 A4  198 x 210
    1/4 A4   74 x 210
    1/8 A4   37 x 210
    1/4 A3  105 x 297
    1/3 A5   70 x 148
    etc.

(The values have been copied from DIN 476 (Dec 1976) which is the German 
version of the ISO standard).

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-- 
Markus Kuhn, Computer Science student -=-=- University of Erlangen, Germany
Internet: mskuhn@immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de  |  X.500 entry available
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