Jim Frysimger surprised me with his USMA 22457: > > A4 paper is no more or less metric than US Letter paper, except in its >underlying design origins. When I set A4 in my StarOffice 6.0, I am >formatting paper that is 210 mm by 297 mm. When I set US Letter in my >StarOffice 6.0, I am formatting paper that is 215.9 mm by 279.4 mm. >Paper sizes can easily vary by as much as a millimeter in either >direction from one manufacturer to another (likewise a millimeter plus >or minus due to humidity changes!), so we can just as easily call US >Letter paper 216 mm by 279 mm. Or, even, 215 mm by 280 mm. If we used >the latter size specifications, U.S. companies would not have to go out >and buy new binders, folders, notebooks, filing cabinets, and bookcases. >And 215 mm by 280 mm sure seems to have a nice, rational metric ring to >it! In terms of street talk, it can be called "twenty-one and a half by >twenty-eight paper", if not U.S. Letter paper. Since this size is the >prevalent size up and down North and South America, it's sure to catch >on while sounding niftily metric. >
A4 is *defined* as 210 mm X 297 mm. American quarto is *defined* as 8,5 in. X 11 in. A0 is *defined* as having an area of 1 square metre. What is the area of the corresponding American sheet size? Albert J. Mettler, Seceretary of the Canadian Metric Association, in 1977 carried out a survey of metric usage in the world. He found that ISO paper sizes were used extensively or exclusively in Argentina, Brasil (>60%), Guatemala (>60%), Honduras (>95). The following countries (usually national standard; compulsory in government and/or20 - 40% of private sector): Chile, Ecuador, and Peru. ISO paper sizes known and used, but not widely, in Costa Rica, Cuba, and Paraguay. Questions on paper size not answered - ISO sizes presumably not used: El Salvador. ISO sizes not known and not used: Haiti.
