Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Paper sizes

royvanrijn.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 206 posts

Re: Paper sizes

#161

Post by monochromatic »

> But what do you end up with folding the US Letter? Let’s see:

> 216 mm x 279 mm ratio: 1.291

> 139 mm x 216 mm ratio: 1.554 > 108 mm x 139 mm ratio: 1.287 > 69 mm x 108 mm ratio: 1.565 > 54 mm x 69 mm ratio: 1.278

> 34 mm x 54 mm ratio: 1.588

> 27 mm x 34 mm ratio: 1.259 These ratios, in fact, just go back and forth between two values (because when you cut a piece of paper into fourths, it has the same aspect ratio as the original). The other differences are just rounding errors.

He notes rounding errors earlier in the post, so I'm not sure why they get called out in this example with "HUH!?" and the other comments.

Re: Paper sizes

#162

Post by ovulator »

willvarfar wrote: post #129
azth wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The base size A0 has an area of exactly 1 square meter. Which is still arbitrary :)

No, its the basis of paper weights too, which are measured in grams/m^2

Another thing that the US fails miserably at. 80# cover, 110# index, 24# bond … it’s all meaningless.

Re: Paper sizes

#163

Post by ericglyman »

karimatiyeh wrote: post #160

A comical yet accurate take on why A4 is the best paper size : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb9EsAD2jGQ . You'll enjoy this. The tone is great as well.

Today I learned something new. And I was entertained. Tip of the hat.

Re: Paper sizes

#164

Post by nawitus »

logfromblammo wrote: post #155
ajuc wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

English is far from being streamlined. In fact it's the only language I know that requires you to learn how to pronounce EACH word. Most languages only require learning how each letter sounds, and maybe a few dozen di/trigraphs, the rest is regular. Not so in English.

No, you don't. You only need to learn separate spelling and pronunciation rules for each of the languages English has evolved or stolen from. The tough spellings usually come from Germanic roots via Old English and Middle English, whereas the French-Norman spellings are less difficult . Greek-Latin spellings are markedly less confusing when you learn the transliterations of the Greek alphabet. Of course Philadephia i…

>You really only need to learn rules derived from four dissimilar languages to spell and pronounce almost everything in English without having a word-specific association.

Don't you also need to learn the language from which every word is derived from?

Re: Paper sizes

#165

Post by brudgers »

And what about US legal? Or Architectural Sizes?

Nevermind folios (and quartos and ovtavos).

It's a big diverse world with room for all sorts of paper applications.

[Architectural Sizes]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_size#Architectural_sizes

[folios]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folio_%28printing%29#Size

[big diverse world]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_size#Other_sizes

Re: Paper sizes

#166

Post by Symbiote »

smackfu wrote: post #96

Practically, the number of people who need to ever use a paper size other than letter/A4 is minimal. So any elegance is pretty much lost.

Not true, at least outside the US where using other sizes is easy. It all "just works", so it's used all the time.

Age 5, my school work book is B4 size. I can glue the a A4 sheet (or two A5 sheets) the teacher hands out.

A little later, and the work books are B5 sized. A4 sheets fit in if folded.

I want to make a poster at home. I set the document size to A2, design it, press print, and four A4 sheets are printed, exactly the right size. I can change it to any other A-size very easily.

I want to photocopy / print some A4 documents, but save paper. Two (or four) sheets fix neatly on one page. Or, I can enlarge it to A3 — most photocopiers in most offices have A3 paper in one of the drawers for this. There's an A3 laser printer in my office, it's useful.

From my desk, I can see things laser-printed by me in A4 and A3; things produced in A5 and A6; and notebooks in B5. If I need a poster in A1 or A2 size there's a printer upstairs.

Re: Paper sizes

#167

Post by Symbiote »

rhino369 wrote: post #157
justincormack wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Odd how every single country in the world has adopted it, except for the US and Canada. They all changed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_size#The_international_s...

But they didn't change from a widely used system to another widely used system. They changed from no standardized system to ISO. North America already as system in place. Switching from one to the other confers very little, if any, benefit.

Ah, so America is special again? No, many countries had standard sizes before ISO/DIN.

Britain changed from "Imperial" sizes: http://www.papersizes.org/old-imperial-sizes.htm

France had these before 1967: http://www.paper-sizes.com/uncommon-paper-sizes/old-european...

Re: Paper sizes

#168

Post by Aoyagi »

jdmichal wrote: post #104
Aoyagi wrote: post #44

Next step: metric measurement units everywhere. I've been waiting for that for decades. If "dozens" would die as well, even better.

I haven't heard many arguments against dozens. In fact, there are some groups that specifically argue for duodecimal systems. I'd be interested to hear your position in more detail. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duodecimal#Advocacy_and_.22doze...

My main problem is that it's longer than "tens". And I have 10 fingers. And I use base-10 for everything, including counting the dozens. It's just more logical (and I say that without reading through the wiki page, so sorry if whatever I say doesn't make any sense with that in mind. I'm not good with words).

Re: Paper sizes

#169

Post by ajuc »

logfromblammo wrote: post #155
ajuc wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

English is far from being streamlined. In fact it's the only language I know that requires you to learn how to pronounce EACH word. Most languages only require learning how each letter sounds, and maybe a few dozen di/trigraphs, the rest is regular. Not so in English.

No, you don't. You only need to learn separate spelling and pronunciation rules for each of the languages English has evolved or stolen from. The tough spellings usually come from Germanic roots via Old English and Middle English, whereas the French-Norman spellings are less difficult . Greek-Latin spellings are markedly less confusing when you learn the transliterations of the Greek alphabet. Of course Philadephia i…

A lot of other languages borrowed words too. Some even more than English.

Polish is half Latin, 10% German, Italian, French and Russian, and now it becomes a lot like English too.

But it has consistent rules and after a word is used enough it becomes polonized: computer becomes komputer, and we don't ever have to wonder how to pronounce "c".

Re: Paper sizes

#170

Post by ajuc »

smackfu wrote: post #96

Practically, the number of people who need to ever use a paper size other than letter/A4 is minimal. So any elegance is pretty much lost.

A4 and A5 are used very often, for example for notebooks in school.
Post reply on HN