From the discussion at MapPorn:
For those unfamiliar with A4: the significant advantage of this system is its scaling: if a sheet with an aspect ratio of √2 is divided into two equal halves parallel to its shortest sides, then the halves will again have an aspect ratio of √2. put very simply...
A4 is our standard size for letters, etc. A3 is EXACTLY twice this size, A5 is EXACTLY half this size...
In other words, you can cut an A4 sheet in half to get two A5 sheets, and so on. To put it simply: you can keep cutting it in half midway along the long edge, and the result will be 2 sheets with half the area and the same aspect ratio. No other aspect ratio has this property.
It’s is set so A0 is 1 square meter, and the number increases every time it’s halved. Hence A4 is 1/16 of a square meter.
I wonder how many people outside the US over the years have been driven crazy by a printer demanding, "PC Load Letter" because the printer was full of A4 but some piece of software written in the US thought that paper should be Letter sized.
ReplyDeleteI have literally never even heard of "letter size" paper, used hundreds and hundreds of printers in my day and never even seen it as an option. And i worked for years in an industry that even legally requires everything to be printed on paper, electronic copies aren't good enough (terribly wasteful, i know). So i've printed. A lot.
DeleteI've very rarely seen foolscap, but not for quite some time now.
Letter size? New concept.
-Sydney AU
In deaking with clients from outside the US, I have to resized thier A4 to Letter before printing them.
ReplyDelete