Paper sizes according to ISO

Today we will talk about paper formats. Their history begins with the end of the XVIII century. As early as 1798, the German publicist and learned doctor Georg Christoph Lichtenberg in his letter to Johann Beckman explains the practical and aesthetic attitude of the parties equal to the square root of 2.

A few years later, the French government introduced a law on the taxation of paper merchants, indicating in it the dimensions already exactly corresponding to modern ISO formats. "Grand Register" is ISO A2, "Grand Papier" - ISO B3 and so on. French formats have not become popular and have been forgotten for almost a hundred years.

In 1922, in Germany, DIN 406 was introduced in order to save and improve efficiency. Such a concept was so convincing that many countries in Europe and Asia adopt the German standard as a national one. And since 1975, for all official documents of the United Nations , it is precisely its sheet size that is introduced.

The exception is the countries of North America, the USA and Canada, as well as Japan.

According to ISO standards, paper is initially divided into three main classes. The basis is taken sheet with an area of one square meter. To this size corresponds the format A0. It is customary to consider the length and width in millimeters. As a general rule, all other paper formats are determined by dividing the longest side by two, that is, if A0 (841x1189) is cut in half, we get 594x841. This will be the format of A1, etc.

For reference information, we will remove all the dimensions of class A in the table.

Class A in Russia is the most popular. And the most popular format is A4. It is used daily in millions of offices.

But mass production in Europe can not be based on any specific format. This is due to the fact that more and more printing equipment is used, which can work universally, satisfying the consumer's demand. That is why there exist paper formats of class B. They are defined as a geometric mean between the neighboring class A. That is, B1 is the geometric mean between A0 and A1. The C-class format is similar, it is the geometric mean between the formats A and B of the same number. That is, the letter written on the A4 sheet will fit perfectly in the C4 envelope, and the A5 sheet will easily fall into the C5 envelope.

All of the above formats are edged, that is, they are the sizes of a sheet of finished publications.

On pages of search engines there is often confusion with the format and quality. Classes A, B, and C should in no case be confused with the categories of paper A, A +, B, B +, C, C + - and vice versa. In the first case - this is the size, in the second - the grade and properties. The above categories determine the quality of the paper according to certain parameters, such as density, whiteness, humidity, curl, electrical conductivity, smoothness, roughness, thickness, stiffness. In accordance with the categories, the quality is determined, that is, the luxury paper category is A, the price-quality ratio is paper of category B, the paper of economy class is C.