At 07:22 AM 4/30/2002 +0200, Han Maenen wrote: >I thought that I was clear enough when I stated expressly that I was NOT >criticizing your choice of paper sizes. I *only* meant to condemn the >invasion of inch paper sizes in metric countries and I would condemn it >again and again....
Han, I did not take your comments as criticism, but I wanted to make the point that paper size for common use and paper size for printers is somewhat of a different issue. For the same reason I included Bill Hooper's comment in my response. I don't think I was clear about this differentiation, so let me try again. (1) Paper used by printers (not photocopiers or Kinko-style duplicators) is pretty much unrelated to paper used by individuals in our home or offices. Printers use very large sheets, often multiple copies per sheet, or multiple pages of a document per sheet. Some printing, newspapers in particular, is done right off a roll of paper, rather than cut sheets. After printing, the sheets or rolls are cut, folded, bound and sheared as specified by the customer. So the size of the finished document bears little relationship to the size of the original roll or sheet of paper. While the discussion of metric sizes may be appropriate, it would be a very specialized discussion that would have nothing to do with A4, or any other "consumer" paper size. (2) Paper used in our homes and offices, and by Kinko-style shops, is pre-cut to its final size. Here is where the discussion of A4 vs. 8-1/2x11" applies. But, since Metric Today is a printed document, unless you know the printing process involved (photocopy vs. duplicator vs. printing press), arguments about how easy it is to obtain A3 paper may just not apply. Whether one uses a photocopier or a duplicator or a printing press depends on (a) quantity, (b) desired print quality, (c) type of paper, (d) color requirements, (e) finished document size, and no doubt some other factors I haven't thought of. All that said, Han, I agree entirely with your comments about the "invasion" of non-metric papers into metric countries. As I've stated before, if all other countries of the world could be much more strict in not allowing colloquial pollution, it would speed up metrication of the USA. Jim Elwell Electrical Engineer Industrial manufacturing manager Salt Lake City, Utah, USA www.qsicorp.com
