1070
📄 rule (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by brbposting@sh.itjust.works to c/196

alt-textIt blows our hivemind that the United States doesn't use the ISO 216 paper size standard (A4, A5 and the gang).

Like, we consider ourselves worldly people and are aware of America's little idiosyncrasies like mass incarceration, the widespread availability of assault weapons and not being able to transfer money via your banking app, but come on - look how absolutely great it is to be European:

The American mind cannot comprehend this diagram

[Diagram of paper sizes as listed below]

ISO 216 A series papers formats

AO

A1

A3

A5

A7

A6

Et.

A4

Instead, Americans prostrate themselves to bizarrely-named paper types of seemingly random size: Letter, Legal, Tabloid (Ledger) and all other types of sordid nonsense. We're not even going to include a picture because this is a family-friendly finance blog.

Source: Financial Times

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] grue@lemmy.world 33 points 10 months ago

As a European, haven't you heard about the existence of the B and C series of paper sizes? It may not be exactly what you have in mind, but B4 paper is 250 x 353 mm (9.8 x 13.9 in) and C4 paper is 229 x 324 mm (9 x 12.8 in). There's also elongated A which is really long.

I hope you appreciate the irony of an American telling you about them.

[-] kakes@sh.itjust.works 11 points 10 months ago

There's also scrolls, if Elongated A isn't quite enough.

[-] jollyrogue@lemmy.ml 3 points 10 months ago

I do miss the continuous form paper used with dot matrix printers.

It made banners easy, and I could make snakes out of the edges.

[-] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago

Burn the unbeliever!

[-] alvvayson@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 10 months ago

As your links explain, C series is used for envelopes, while B and elongated A are special case that aren't commonly used.

In any case, none of those series has an equivalent to American Letter.

The only paper that you will commonly find in European offices are A4 and (to a lesser extent) A3.

A big office printer might have 4 trays stocked with A4 and one tray with A3, for example.

this post was submitted on 28 May 2024
1070 points (100.0% liked)

196

17449 readers
764 users here now

Be sure to follow the rule before you head out.


Rule: You must post before you leave.



Other rules

Behavior rules:

Posting rules:

NSFW: NSFW content is permitted but it must be tagged and have content warnings. Anything that doesn't adhere to this will be removed. Content warnings should be added like: [penis], [explicit description of sex]. Non-sexualized breasts of any gender are not considered inappropriate and therefore do not need to be blurred/tagged.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us on our matrix channel or email.

Other 196's:

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS