Paper Sizes

Paper size standards govern the size of sheets of paper used as writing paper, stationery, cards, and for some printed documents.

The ISO 216 standard, which includes the commonly used A4 size, is the international standard for paper size. It is used everywhere except in North America and parts of Latin America, where North American paper sizes such as "Letter" and "Legal" are used. The international standard for envelopes is the C series of ISO 269.

The standard for drawing sheet sizes is the A series. The basic size in this series is the A0 size (1189 mm x 841 mm) which has an area of about 1-m3. The sides of every size in the series are in the ratio Sq rt (2) = 1.414 : 1 and each size is half the area of the next larger size.

Drawing Sheet Size	Size in millimeters	Size in inches
A0	1189 x 841	46.81 x 33.11
A1	841 x 594	33.11 x 23.39
A2	594 x 420	23.39 x 16.55
A3	420 x 297	16.55 x 11.69
A4	297 x 210	11.69 x 8.27
A5	210 x 148	8.27 x 5.84
A6	148 x 105	5.84 x 4.13

Preferred Scales For Drawings...

The preferred scales are

1:1, 1:2, 1:5, 1:10, 1:20, 1:50, 1:100

• BS EN ISO 5457 Drawing Sheet Sizes

Designation	Trimmed Sheet		Drawing Space +/- 0.5 mm		Untrimmed Sheet +/- 2 mm
-	Width (mm)	Length (mm)	Width (mm)	Length (mm)	Width (mm)	Length (mm)
A0	841	1189	821	1159	880	1230
A1	594	841	574	811	625	880
A2	420	594	400	564	450	625
A3	297	420	277	390	330	450
A4	210	297	180	277	240	330