Popular Paper Sizes And Charts. Printing Formats, Paper StAndards.

Paper Standards

Many paper size standards conventions have existed at different times and in different countries. Today there is one widespread international ISO standard (including A4, B3, C4, etc.) and a localised standard used in North America (including letter, legal, ledger, etc.). The paper sizes affect writing paper, stationery, cards, and some printed documents. The standards also have related sizes for envelopes.

In the ISO paper size system, the height-to-width ratio of all pages is the square root of two (1.4142 : 1). In other words, the width and the height of a page relate to each other like the side and the diagonal of a square. This aspect ratio is especially convenient for a paper size. If you put two such pages next to each other, or equivalently cut one parallel to its shorter side into two equal pieces, then the resulting page will have again the same width/height ratio.

The ISO 216 definiton of the A paper sizes is based on the following basis:

The length divided by the width is 1.4142

The A0 size has an area of 1 square metre.

Each subsequent size A(n) is defined as A(n-1) cut in half parallel to its shorter sides.

The standard length and width of each size is rounded to the nearest millimetre.

View paper sizes and chart of (A) Series Paper »

B Series Paper

The B series are defined in the standard as follows: "A subsidiary series of sizes is obtained by placing the geometrical means between adjacent sizes of the A series in sequence." The use of the geometric mean means that each step in size: B0, A0, B1, A1, B2 … is smaller than the previous by an equal scaling. In a similar manner to the A series; the lengths of the B series still have the ratio 1:sqrt{2}, and folding one in half gives the next in the series. The shorter side of B0 is exactly 1m.

Popular C Series Envelop Sizes and dimensions

The C series is used only for envelopes and is defined in ISO 269. The C series formats are geometric means between the B series and A series formats with the same number.