With Paper … Size does matter!

Many people will have heard printers (& other professions) talk about paper sizes.

And, like other business sectors we have introduced and developed our own ‘jargon speak’ … and not necessarily just to confuse you!

In Britain and Europe metric ISO ‘A’ sizes are the most common.

The starting point is an ‘A0’ sheet with an area of one square metre.

Folding this sheet in half results in an ‘A1’ sheet.

Folding an ‘A1’ sheet in half gives and ‘A2’ sheet and so on …

Because ‘A’ sizes are so widely used ‘A’ size paper is relatively cheap and many machines are optimised handling them, so ‘A’ sizes are often the most cost-effective option.

‘A4’ is the most often referred to size and so probably most commonly known, but how do other sizes compare?

Size	Dimensions	Uses
A0	841 mm x 1189 mm	posters
A1	594 mm x 841 mm	posters
A2	420 mm x 594 mm	posters, calendars
A3	297 mm x 420 mm	posters, calendars, 'tabloid' magazines
A4	210 mm x 297 mm	stationery, books, annual reports
A5	148 mm x 210 mm	personal stationery, books, brochures, leaflets
A6	148 mm 105 mm	postcards, leaflets, invitations, booklets
A7	105 mm 74 mm	tickets

Another commonly used size based on the ‘A’ size system is one third of ‘A4’ (99 x210mm).

Two thirds of ‘A4’ (198 x210mm) is also sometimes used a sis the square size (210 x210mm).

On the more technical side there are also oversize ‘RA’ and ‘SRA’ sizes.

Printing presses cannot print right to the edge of a sheet because the excess ink build up would cause problems. Most printers use oversized sheets which are later trimmed down to the finished size.