subject: Small And Large Format Paper North American Paper Sizes [print this page] There have been many different ways of measurement throughout the history of paper. Today there are two main systems of measurement when it comes to small and large format paper. One is the the ISO 216, i.e. the international standard, which is based on a German design but consists of Swedish, Colombian, and Japanese alterations and extensions.
And the other, which is what this article will be focusing on, is the North American paper sizes.
Used widely within the United States, Canada, and Mexico, the North American Paper Sizes has two major "types." The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), which is based on the basic letter size ratio, and the Architectural size, or "Arch," which is common amongst architects since its rations are similar to those commonly used on monitors.
There are a series of other North American Paper sizes, such as Compact, Legal Monarch, Broadsheet, Elephant, Double Demy, Quad Demy, and Super-B (amongst others), none have a wide-spread popularity equal to ANSI or Arch.
Using the de facto standard 8.5x11 inches, the American National Standards Institute created the ANSI paper sizes. Similar to an international standard ISO, the ANSI was designed specifically so that large format paper, when cut in half, would create two sheets of the next smallest size.
The five basic ANSI sizes are:
ANSI A, which is 8.5x11 inches
ANSI B, which is 17x11 inches
ANSI C, which is 17x22 inches
ANSI D, which is 22x34 inches
And ANSI E, which is 34x44 inches
ANSI E is considered large format paper, though other larger sizes do exist. However, they are not officially part of the ANSI series.
The Architectural sizes, typically described as "Arch," gets its name from its obvious connection to diagramming architectural projects (although the entertainment industry uses Arch large format paper sizes often as well).
Though their sizes differ from the measurements of the ANSI models, architectural paper shares the trait that cutting it in half will produce two versions of the size one smaller. However, some exceptions do exist. The Arch has eight sizes, consisting of Arch A, Arch B, Arch C, Arch D, Arch E, Arch E1, Arch E2, and Arch E3. The first five are capable of being cut in half and creating two of the size one smaller, however, this cannot be said for E1, E2, or E3.
Some experts suspect Arch paper is preferred by architects over ANSI or even the international versions because the aspect rations (4:3 and 3:2) offer smaller, simpler integers
by: Mark Etinger
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