Since coming to Japan, I've made a most delightful discovery. At home whenever I created or printed a document on my computer, these mysterious A4, B5, etc. paper sizes always showed up in my choices. What could these cryptic codes possibly mean? How could one ever determine a paper's actual size through a simple combination of letters and numbers? To me, "letter" and "legal" made perfect sense.
I don't know about anywhere else, but in Japan A4 size is the standard "letter" size paper. I assume that much of the rest of the world uses this standard, since in all too many cases it seems to boil down to "the rest of the world" using one standard while the US (and sometimes England) uses some outdated half-assed imperial standard. Note that in no way do I claim knowledge of worldwide paper size standards; I'm talking out my ass.
After an extended period of confusion over these strange paper sizes, it was finally explained to me. Lucky you, that you get to share in my leaned wisdom. Witness: The letter (A,B, etc.) indicates the basic size category of the paper. The number indicates (it seems to me) the relative size in comparison to other numbers in the category. Two combined sheets of one number will always form one sheet of the next number up. For example, two B5 sheets will form, side by side, one B4 sheet. Likewise, two A4 sheets will form a single A3 sheet. Genius!
I imagine this makes for dry reading, but just try for a moment to imagine my excitement when I figured this out. It's like cracking a code or something. It makes the creation of school handouts so much simpler, not to mention cooler because I can do neat things with my handout sheets.
Yet again ... It's the small things in life.
Comments
Not to get all Chris Behm on your ass, but:
"The international paper size standard, ISO 216, is metric (the base format is a sheet of paper measuring 1 m²) and has been adopted by all countries in the world, except the United States and Canada. ISO paper sizes are all based on a single aspect ratio of the square root of two, or approximately 1:1.4142."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_sizes
.. the dragon was easy.
Posted by: oldefezziwig | April 19, 2006 1:54 PM
Haaahahahaha the dragon was easy!
Oh man I forgot about that one...
Posted by: Justin | April 19, 2006 1:56 PM
... but it appears you are right about two B5's forming one B4:
"The largest standard size, A0, has an area of 1 m². A1 is formed by cutting a piece of A0 in half, which retains the aspect ratio. This particular measurement system was chosen in order to allow folding of one standard size into another, which cannot be accomplished with traditional paper sizes."
God I must be more bored than you when you posted this. I need to call off of work more often ;)
Posted by: oldefezziwig | April 19, 2006 1:57 PM
but today there are basically only two systems in place: the international standard (A4 and its siblings), and the North American sizes
Well, at least I was right about the rest of the world using A4. w00t!
Posted by: Justin | April 19, 2006 1:58 PM
Doesn't Japan have its own size, too? I get a JB5 option as well as B5 whenever I hook up to a printer in this country.
Posted by: Will | April 19, 2006 5:57 PM
Yeah, I get (JIS) when I go to print something. The margins are slightly different but the paper size is the same.
According to the Wikipedia entry (mentioned above), the B5/B4/B3 thing is also a Japan-only standard.
Who would've thought paper could spark such discussion...
Posted by: Justin | April 19, 2006 6:05 PM
*yawn* (no offense, guys....)
Posted by: ma | April 20, 2006 8:04 AM
Yeah, there's an ISO (international EXCEPT NORTH AMERICA) B series and a Japan-only B series (I think the Japan-only one is a tiny bit bigger), but I don't know why.
Posted by: Matt | April 23, 2006 4:39 PM