Comment by NeoTar
3 years ago
In case anyone is unaware, A0 is 1m^2 in size, and each adjacent number is half the size (i.e. A1 = 500 000 mm^2, A2 = 250 000 mm^2, A3 = 125 000 mm^2, A4 = 62 500 mm^2).
This has the great advantage of allowing documents to be easily up and down-scaled on a photocopier - i.e. an A3 document can be printed at 50% scale on an A4 sheet.
I wonder if anyone ever tried to do something similar with imperial units (AKA English units to the US Americans) - i.e. create sheets of papers with side-length of sqrt(2) : 1, and the largest being 1 square yard or similar.
You're correct, but also forgetting the best part. The ratio between width and length stays the same!!
This specifically is what allows easy up-/downscaling for an A* size.
I guess the key thing actually is that the width of A(n) is the same as the height of A(n+1).
How often do you need to scale up or down a printed document? I don't see how that is useful.
Print shops nearly always print multiple copies/multiple pages of a job onto larger sheets and them cut and collate them afterwards, as the print step takes the longest time which includes moving sheets in and starting the print and then stopping the print and moving the result out.
An A1 sheet can fit 4x A3 posters, 8x A4 pages or 16x A5 flyer/booklet pages without any wastage, so all you need is a single A1 printer.
You may want to print multiple pages per sheet.
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US paper sizes:
ANSI A == 8.5 x 11 inches (letter)
ANSI B == 11 x 17 inches
ANSI C == 17 x 22 inches
ANSI D == 22 x 34 inches
ANSI E == 34 x 44 inches
There are additional sizes frequently used in the US too: business card, legal, half letter, and specialized sizes for architecture.
11/8.5 = 22/17 = 44/34 = 1.29
17/11 = 34/22 = 1.55
These have the property that they alternate aspect ratios every size, so you have to go up two sizes (4x area) to get back to the original aspect ratio.
Who cares?
I’ve only ever seen letter size paper available in offices in the US whereas almost every office photocopier/printer in UK/EU is stocked with both both A4 and A3. The larger sheets are really nice for sketching diagrams.
11x17 printer trays were common for engineering use before we got decent high resolution monitors and most work process became paperless.
9 x 12 inches and 11 x 14 inches are standard in art paper in the US. As are 5 x 7 and 8 x 10.
The first one, 9 x 12, happens to also be “ARCH A” but I haven’t seen a fancy name for the others.