Paper Size Standards

Discussions center on the advantages of ISO A-series paper sizes like A4 over US Letter, including scaling properties, folding, global usage, and impacts on printing and document handling.

➡️ Stable 0.6x Hardware
1,652
Comments
19
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#2002
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2008
4
2009
25
2010
23
2011
43
2012
40
2013
54
2014
69
2015
112
2016
51
2017
56
2018
62
2019
104
2020
116
2021
99
2022
251
2023
159
2024
152
2025
176
2026
56

Keywords

US A5 E2 FWIW youtube.com A3 UK A0 PC LOAD paper a4 size sizes letter printer sheets cut folding width

Sample Comments

Keyframe Jan 2, 2013 View on HN

ISO 216 paper sizes while you're at it, please!

EdSchouten Oct 7, 2019 View on HN

Because there are about 10 times as many people in the world that use A4 instead of US Letter:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_size#/media/File:Prevale...

Symbiote May 12, 2023 View on HN

It can't work perfectly except with the A series paper sizes.

divan May 13, 2025 View on HN

It's obviously something about paper size A5.

adastra22 Apr 25, 2025 View on HN

Because that’s the size of the paper.

BLKNSLVR Jun 27, 2021 View on HN

The size of the physical paper makes a difference to the integrity of the content?

jsjohnst Sep 11, 2019 View on HN

Read it again, it states over 100 sizes of paper. ;)

roelschroeven Jan 7, 2026 View on HN

A[n] sizes are useful when enlarging or shrinking documents. Enlarge or shrink by muliples of sqrt(2) and there's always a fitting paper size available. Or you can put two A5s together on an A4, or two A4s on an A3.

lionkor Aug 30, 2023 View on HN

Meta but what is this paper format? Its not letter, or any A format, so what is it?And more importantly, why was it used?

ncoco Apr 24, 2025 View on HN

Like the width of an A4 sheet of paper.