David Starner wrote on 2002-05-01 22:17 UTC: > On Wed, May 01, 2002 at 11:06:08PM +0100, Markus Kuhn wrote: > > As for the actual physical paper format (as opposed to PDF document > > layout), I'd like to warmly encourage people in North America to start > > using A4 paper. > > Why would we?
For the exact same reason you should switch to the metric system: The entire civilised world has agreed half a century ago to use this single system, to make life significantly easier for everyone on this planet. Only the Americans still make fools of themselves with their ridiculous Flintstone units (how many cubic feet to the gallon again? :) and paper formats (two different aspect ratios, due to a lack of mathematical knowledge in a 1920s committee). I think, it's a disgrace and we should rub it in until you see the light. > All our printers and copiers take and are loaded with letter paper. And? Most of them are produced by companies who sell the exact same models in the rest of the world. Some merely need a replacement paper tray. A 1992 US government study claimed that apart from the operators of some types of large rotory print presses, the migration could be done at quite moderate cost: http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~mgk25/gpo-report.pdf There's this 1972 Canadian study that highly recommended already then a switchover to ISO paper formats (which the Ontario government attempted to do in 1974, but failed because of ignorance in the US): http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/volatile/dunn-papersizes.pdf A detailed discussion of the practical advantages of ISO paper formats: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-paper.html I agree that it is not very practical for an individual at the moment to start such a switchover (though some multinational companies in the US do have A4 in the second paper tray, both Xerox and Staples sell it in the US). Standardization of office paper formats requires a major political decision and takes around a decade to complete. To prepare that, a sufficient number of people have to get knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the idea first. Markus -- Markus G. Kuhn, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge, UK Email: mkuhn at acm.org, WWW: <http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/> -- Linux-UTF8: i18n of Linux on all levels Archive: http://mail.nl.linux.org/linux-utf8/
