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America's loss



International paper sizes (ISO 216) are used throughout the world apart from North America, three countries in South America and Australia. There are other outliers, but these sizes are pretty much the global standard, and not without good reason.

The A-series sizes are based on a measurement where each sheet has a root 2 aspect ration. Simply put, this means that each smaller standard size is exactly half the size of the larger one.

These are named from the largest sheet (A0) to the smallest (A8), with common copier paper and business letterhead being A4 size. Poster-size papers (A3) are also commonly found in offices and schools, and 4-page A4 booklets can be easily made by folding a sheet of A3 in half. Because the sizes are proportional, using the image reduction feature on a photocopier, an A3 spread (two A4 pages) can be reduced to fit a single A4 sheet, comprising four A5 pages. Many paperback book in Europe are A5 size.

This means that most printed pages have a familiar look and feel to them. There are, of course, many publications that vary from this, but the shape has proved durable, and traces its roots back to 18th century France. It was formally adopted for legal work under Napoleon and has spread since then.

The US standard 8.5 x 11 inches is shorter and wider than A4, and US-based international companies have frequently found after shipping brochures to European branches that there are no envelopes available that can take them.

When I was managing brochure production, in such cases I persuaded several companies to design them with an A4 width and an 11-inch height. That way, they would fit into envelopes in the US and Europe.

A diagram showing the relationship of sizes along with additional information may be found here.

 By comparison, US paper sizes (and weights - a subject for a future post) are old fashioned and do not give consumers the degree of flexible functionality that the international paper sizes do.

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