Chapter 34. ISO 216 Paper Sizes (“A,” “B,” and “C” Series)
ISO 216 paper sizes are used in most countries in the world except the United States. This is an old ISO standard that can trace its history back to German DIN standard 476 (DIN 476) in 1922 or even further back to the French. The best Web site for the history is http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-paper.html#history. The underlying ratio principle, like most mathematics, has been around for a while.
The size that most Americans have seen is the A4 (for example, A4 options on copiers and printers), because it is the most common commercial size. The underlying principle is that when rectangles with width/length ratio (1/√2) (approximately 0.707) are cut in half, the two new rectangles are ...
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