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Paper sizes

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Re: Paper sizes

#11

Post by skore »

anonu wrote: post #2

I've lived in the US and also in a country that used the A-series extensively. While I've always appreciated the beauty and math of the A-series, I find the aspect-ratio of the US Letter paper to be much more appealing. A4 tends to be too long and too narrow.

From the article:

> US Letter: 216 mm x 279 mm

> A4: 210 mm × 297 mm

so it's 18mm longer while being 6mm narrower. At that small a difference, I would assume that a preference of one over the other is similar to that of metric vs. imperial - the one you were raised on just seems right.

Which one did you grow up with?

Re: Paper sizes

#12

Post by talideon »

StefanKarpinski wrote: post #5

When someone claims uncritically that the ratio of any two integers is √2, I get a little edgy. I'm also having a hard time following this simplification: A / √A = A × A / A = A Huh? This only holds if √A = A = 1. I haven't checked the rest, but this doesn't give me much confidence. Of course, knowing those Europeans, these sizes do probably make tons of sense on paper (see what I did there?), even if this isn't the…

There's nothing crazy here. It just means that if the length of the long side is √2 times the size of short side. That has the nice property that you can bisect the sheet and get two smaller sheets where the ratio between the long and short edges is maintained, which makes it standardising a whole bunch of other things much more straightforward.

Re: Paper sizes

#13

Post by redcodenl »

mrottenkolber wrote: post #6

I have to note that A4 (what goes in a standard printer) is just a shitty format for documents. There is no way to get a proper layout done, you basically need two columns to use a reasonable amount of space with regards to font size and text body layout, which leads to other problems. There is a very good reason you don't see any A4 books. A5 works OK for book layouts but still is too wide actually... A5 booklet pri…

The point is: An A5 booklet on A4 is the same as A4 booklet on A3, etc.

Re: Paper sizes

#14

Post by talideon »

colechristensen wrote: post #4

This is one of those things that seems technically correct (the best kind of correct) but practically ... meh. The benefit exists but is barely enough to get anyone entrenched to actually change. Much like the common usage of the US Customary units, nothing is going to actually change.

It has other useful effects: it makes it easier to standardise containers for the sheets, as well as their division, amongst other things. And all this from the simple use of a ratio.

Re: Paper sizes

#16

Post by jgrahamc »

skore wrote: post #11
anonu wrote: post #2

I've lived in the US and also in a country that used the A-series extensively. While I've always appreciated the beauty and math of the A-series, I find the aspect-ratio of the US Letter paper to be much more appealing. A4 tends to be too long and too narrow.

From the article: > US Letter: 216 mm x 279 mm > A4: 210 mm × 297 mm so it's 18mm longer while being 6mm narrower. At that small a difference, I would assume that a preference of one over the other is similar to that of metric vs. imperial - the one you were raised on just seems right . Which one did you grow up with?

I grew up with the A sizes of paper and agree with the parent comment. When I moved to the US I was pleasantly surprised by the size/shape of US Letter sized paper.

Re: Paper sizes

#18

Post by skore »

mrottenkolber wrote: post #6

I have to note that A4 (what goes in a standard printer) is just a shitty format for documents. There is no way to get a proper layout done, you basically need two columns to use a reasonable amount of space with regards to font size and text body layout, which leads to other problems. There is a very good reason you don't see any A4 books. A5 works OK for book layouts but still is too wide actually... A5 booklet pri…

> There is no way to get a proper layout done

This is puzzling - how do you explain the abundance of people who seem to have no problem with this whatsoever?

Finally: I have seen lots and lots of A4 books, but they're simply not as common. It probably does help to live in Europe in that regard.

Re: Paper sizes

#19

Post by RVuRnvbM2e »

colechristensen wrote: post #4

This is one of those things that seems technically correct (the best kind of correct) but practically ... meh. The benefit exists but is barely enough to get anyone entrenched to actually change. Much like the common usage of the US Customary units, nothing is going to actually change.

Except, you know, everywhere that isn't the US.

Re: Paper sizes

#20

Post by tenfingers »

mrottenkolber wrote: post #6

I have to note that A4 (what goes in a standard printer) is just a shitty format for documents. There is no way to get a proper layout done, you basically need two columns to use a reasonable amount of space with regards to font size and text body layout, which leads to other problems. There is a very good reason you don't see any A4 books. A5 works OK for book layouts but still is too wide actually... A5 booklet pri…

Books come in absolutely random factors.

The book "advanced engineering mathematics (8th edition on my desk)" is just as wide as A4, but less tall for some reason.

I regularly print documents in A4, and full-width text is absolutely ok if you consider the required margins for binding.

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