In the US at least, 'letter' is the standard paper size. I think England uses A4. IIRC 'legal' pages have the same width as 'letter', but are much longer.
What happens if you print an A4 file on a modern printer is that it doesn't print -- instead it displays an "informative" error message like "load A4" and patiently waits for the user to give it paper suitable for the file being printed. This is very confusing to non-technical users and means nobody else can print until the job is manually cancelled on the printer (once somebody notices the problem). Why is it necessary to override the default paper size in the first place? Do TeX installations use 'letter' by default even in non-US locales? Lior On Wed, 25 Feb 2004, Peter Suetterlin wrote: > > If this is the English version of the Userguide, then you have NO > > business changing the paper to A4. > > > > Why? Because no one in North America will be able to print it. We'll > > lose the lower half of the page. > > Just curious, as I really don't know: Is 'legal' the official paper > format in all english-speaking countries (e.g., UK, Australia..)? > > Pit >
