ISO 216 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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ISO 216
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

ISO 216 specifies international standard (ISO) paper sizes used in most countries in the world today, with the
United States and Canada the main exceptions. The standard defines the "A" and "B" series of paper sizes,
including A4, the most commonly available size. Two supplementary standards, ISO 217 and ISO 269, define
related paper sizes; the ISO 269 "C" series is commonly listed alongside the A and B sizes.
All ISO 216, ISO 217 and ISO 269 paper sizes (except DL) have the same aspect ratio,
. This ratio has the
unique property that when cut or folded in half widthwise, the halves also have the same aspect ratio. Each ISO
paper size is one half of the area of the next size up.

History
The advantages of basing a paper size upon an aspect ratio of
were already noted in 1786 by the German
scientist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, in a letter to Johann Beckmann.[1] The formats that became A2, A3, B3,
B4 and B5 were developed in France, and published in 1798 during the French Revolution.[2]
Early in the twentieth century, Dr Walter Porstmann turned Lichtenberg's idea into a proper system of
different paper sizes. Porstmann's system was introduced as a DIN standard (DIN 476) in Germany in 1922,
replacing a vast variety of other paper formats. Even today the paper sizes are called "DIN Ax" in everyday use
in Germany, Austria, Spain and Portugal.
The main advantage of this system is its scaling: if a sheet with an aspect ratio of
is divided into two equal
halves parallel to its shortest sides, then the halves will again have an aspect ratio of . Folded brochures of
any size can be made by using sheets of the next larger size, e.g. A4 sheets are folded to make A5 brochures.
The system allows scaling without compromising the aspect ratio from one size to another as provided by
office photocopiers, e.g. enlarging A4 to A3 or reducing A3 to A4. Similarly, two sheets of A4 can be scaled
down to fit exactly one A4 sheet without any cutoff or margins.
The weight of each sheet is also easy to calculate given the basis weight in grams per square metre (g/m2 or
"gsm"). Since an A0 sheet has an area of 1 m2, its weight in grams is the same as its basis weight in g/m2. A
standard A4 sheet made from 80 g/m2 paper weighs 5 g, as it is one 16th (four halvings) of an A0 page. Thus the
weight, and the associated postage rate, can be easily calculated by counting the number of sheets used.
ISO 216 and its related standards were first published between 1975 and 1995:
ISO 216:2007, defining the A and B series of paper sizes
ISO 269:1985, defining the C series for envelopes
ISO 217:2013, defining the RA and SRA series of raw ("untrimmed") paper sizes

A series
Paper in the A series format has a
aspect ratio, although this is rounded to the nearest
millimetre. A0 is defined so that it has an area of 1 square metre, prior to the rounding. Successive paper sizes in
the series (A1, A2, A3, etc.) are defined by halving the preceding paper size, cutting parallel to its shorter side so

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that the long side of A(

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_216

) is the same length as the short side of A prior to rounding.

The most frequently used of this series is the size A4 which is 210 mm 297 mm (8.27 in 11.7 in). For
comparison, the letter paper size commonly used in North America (8.5 in 11 in (216 mm 279 mm)) is
approximately 6 mm (0.24 in) wider and 18 mm (0.71 in) shorter than A4.
The geometric rationale behind the square root of 2 is to maintain the aspect ratio of each subsequent rectangle
after cutting or folding an A series sheet in half, perpendicular to the larger side. Given a rectangle with a longer
side, x, and a shorter side, y, ensuring that its aspect ratio,
, will be the same as that of a rectangle half its
size,
, means that
, which reduces to
; in other words, an aspect ratio
of
.
The formula that gives the larger border of the paper size A in metres and without rounding off is the
geometric sequence:
. The paper size A thus has the dimension

.
The exact millimetre measurement of the long side of A is given by

B series
The B series is defined in the standard as follows: "A subsidiary series of sizes is obtained by placing the
geometrical means between adjacent sizes of the A series in sequence." The use of the geometric mean means
that each step in size: B0, A0, B1, A1, B2 is smaller than the previous by an equal scaling. As with the A
series, the lengths of the B series have the ratio
, and folding one in half gives the next in the series. The
shorter side of B0 is exactly 1m.
There is also an incompatible Japanese B series which the JIS defines to have 1.5 times the area of the
corresponding JIS A series (which is identical to the ISO A series).[3] Thus, the lengths of JIS B series paper are
times those of A-series paper. By comparison, the lengths of ISO B series paper are
times those of A-series paper.
For the ISO B series, the exact millimetre measurement of the long side of B
.

is given by

C series
The C series formats are geometric means between the B series and A series formats with the same number
(e.g., C2 is the geometric mean between B2 and A2). The width to height ratio is as in the A and B series. The C
series formats are used mainly for envelopes. An A4 page will fit into a C4 envelope. C series envelopes follow
the same ratio principle as the A series pages. For example, if an A4 page is folded in half so that it is A5 in size,
it will fit into a C5 envelope (which will be the same size as a C4 envelope folded in half). The lengths of ISO C
series paper are therefore
times those of A-series paper - i.e. about 9% larger.
A, B, and C paper fit together as part of a geometric progression, with ratio of successive side lengths of 21/8,
though there is no size half-way between Bn and An-1: A4, C4, B4, "D4", A3, ; there is such a D-series in the
Swedish extensions to the system.

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The exact millimetre measurement of the long side of C

is given by

Tolerances
The tolerances specified in the standard are:
1.5 mm for dimensions up to 150 mm,
2.0 mm for dimensions in the range 150 to 600 mm, and
3.0 mm for dimensions above 600 mm.

Application
The ISO 216 formats are organized around the ratio
; two sheets next to each other together have the
same ratio, sideways. In scaled photocopying, for example, two A4 sheets reduced to A5 size fit exactly onto
one A4 sheet, and an A4 sheet in magnified size onto an A3 sheet, in each case there is neither waste nor want.
The principal countries not generally using the ISO paper sizes are the United States and Canada, which use the
Letter, Legal and Executive system. Although they have also officially adopted the ISO 216 paper format,
Mexico, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, the Philippines and Chile also use mostly U.S. paper sizes.
Rectangular sheets of paper with the ratio

are popular in paper folding, such as origami, where they are

sometimes called "A4 rectangles" or "silver rectangles".[4] In other contexts, the term "silver rectangle" can also
refer to a rectangle in the proportion
, known as the silver ratio.

See also
ANSI/ASME Y14.1
International standard envelope sizes
ISO 128 (relating to technical drawing)
Letter (paper size)
Metric Pixel Canvas
Paper density
Paper size

References
1. ^ Briefwechsel, Band, III; Lichtenberg (1786-10-25). "Lichtenbergs letter to Johann Beckmann"
(http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/lichtenberg-letter.html). Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (in Deutsch) (1990 ed.).
Deutschland: Verlag C. H. Beck. ISBN 3-406-30958-5. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
2. ^ "Loi sur le timbre (N 2136)" (http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/loi-timbre.html). Bulletin des lois de la
Rpublique (in franais) (Paris: French government) (237): 12. 1798-11-03. Retrieved 2009-05-05.
3. ^ "Japanese B Series Paper Size" (http://www.paper-sizes.com/uncommon-paper-sizes/japanese-b-series-paper-

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_216

size). Retrieved 2010-04-18.

4. ^ Lister, David. "The A4 rectangle" (http://www.britishorigami.info/academic/lister/a4.php). The Lister List.
England: British Origami Society. Retrieved 2009-05-06.

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