Common Paper Size Guide

The ISO 216 standard is a set of guidelines that govern the sizes of paper used worldwide, ensuring consistency and compatibility across different countries and industries. Essentially, it's the reason why your A4 sheets fit neatly into your printer, and why your office documents generally have a similar size and shape no matter where you are.

This standard establishes a series of paper sizes, where each size is exactly half the area of the next larger size. For example, A4 is half the size of A3, and A5 is half the size of A4. This consistency simplifies things like printing, copying, and filing documents because you can easily scale up or down without losing important information or altering the layout.

The most commonly used size under the ISO 216 standard is A4, which measures 210 mm × 297 mm (approximately 8.27 inches × 11.69 inches). It's widely used for printing documents, letters, and forms.

Overall, the ISO 216 standard streamlines paper usage and facilitates communication by providing a universal framework for paper sizes that is easy to understand and apply worldwide.