this post was submitted on 28 May 2024
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submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by brbposting@sh.itjust.works to c/196@lemmy.blahaj.zone
 

alt-textIt blows our hivemind that the United States doesn't use the ISO 216 paper size standard (A4, A5 and the gang).

Like, we consider ourselves worldly people and are aware of America's little idiosyncrasies like mass incarceration, the widespread availability of assault weapons and not being able to transfer money via your banking app, but come on - look how absolutely great it is to be European:

The American mind cannot comprehend this diagram

[Diagram of paper sizes as listed below]

ISO 216 A series papers formats

AO

A1

A3

A5

A7

A6

Et.

A4

Instead, Americans prostrate themselves to bizarrely-named paper types of seemingly random size: Letter, Legal, Tabloid (Ledger) and all other types of sordid nonsense. We're not even going to include a picture because this is a family-friendly finance blog.

Source: Financial Times

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[–] chumbalumber@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Wait, the US genuinely doesn't use A4 etc.?

[–] brbposting@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 months ago (2 children)

We have trouble fitting all our freedom on your kooky, internationally-recognized sizes

Here’s a comparison using the most sensible units possible:

[–] kakes@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Ngl as a Canadian, I implicitly thought 8.5x11 was A4. Well that's dumb, we should switch.

[–] OkGo@lemm.ee 1 points 5 months ago

I’m British and you are not alone, worse still, I spent a year in the USA and never even noticed.

[–] Maggoty@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

Also, I'm pretty sure A4 runs through an American printer just fine.

[–] MetaCubed@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Letter paper (8.5" x 11" | 215.9mm x 279.4mm) is kinda sorta pretty close to A4 (8.27" x 11.69" | 210mm x 297mm) so without having the two next to each other, it can seem like A4 is just a funny piece of letter, and vice versa. But to answer the actual question, USA and Canada (and apparently the phillipines???) use the "North American Standard" which is a terrifying mess in comparison to the beauty that is the ISO standard.

Edit: typos

[–] RandomStickman@kbin.run 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Their hole puncher has three holes and binders/folders have 3 rings as well

[–] clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

How many have yours got? More or fewer?

I have seen legal/letter sized clipboard with two rings, for the short end of the paper.

[–] Droggelbecher@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Either two or four. The two holes are kinda in the middle then if it's four holes it's those same two plus two more closer to the edge

[–] Successful_Try543@feddit.de 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] drmoose@lemmy.world 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

6-9 holes? Is that where Swedes keep their meatballs

[–] Successful_Try543@feddit.de 0 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Filofax If from UK. For these organisers and notebooks they produce, imho it actually makes sense to have several (equally spaced) holes.

Swedish Triohålning and especially the corresponding binders however, are mildly speaking impractical: It works starting from ISO A6 instead A7 and reading documents in a trio binder is a mess.