Remix clone Hacker News

Nearly everything in the US uses letter, legal (letter but longer), or tabloid (double width letter, to be folded over).

Much to my surprise, a random check of a US-based office supply company shows that they do have A4 in stock -- at a price about 40% higher than letter-sized.

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Aardwolf 41 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

> legal (letter but longer)

Why are two slightly different standards needed? Does legal really need to print "just a little bit more" text than others? If so, why not just use that one for everything?

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codazoda a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Don't forget my favorite size, "statement". This is half of letter size. Sometimes used for small statements, sometimes used as letter folded.

Hacker News users may be familiar with Julia Evans (http://jvns.ca) who creates technology zines that work in both A4 and Letter sizes, folded in half.

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kevin_thibedeau a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I used to work at Kodak and they had an industrial printer division in my building. They would go through pallet-fulls of A4 for their testing. Only place Ive seen it in use in a business setting in the US.

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kstrauser a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

And by “nearly everything”, I've never personally seen or used printer or copier paper that wasn't letter or legal. I know it exists, but I've never, not once, bought or used it.

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owl57 a day ago | parent | prev [-]

> legal (letter but longer)

This one surprised me quite a bit. I think most people have A4/letter-sized folders. Why does anyone think that papers slightly longer than those folders are a good idea?

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bombcar a day ago | parent [-]

Legal size folders exist and are widely used by people who use ... legal size paper.

Legal folders can be great to be able to print letter-sized things on, then you have an area at the bottom to write notes and stuff.

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owl57 13 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> Legal size folders exist and are widely used by people who use ... legal size paper.

Sure. But I didn't know I use legal size paper or even what it is before I asked the apartment complex to print the lease agreement, and it didn't fit in their own folder with the other move in papers. In my rank of weirdness discovered upon moving to the US, this is at about the same level as the different ounces.

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cannam a day ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I'm just about old enough to remember (in the UK) foolscap paper, an imperial size also a bit longer than A4. You never see it any more (at least I don't) but foolscap sized box-files are still readily available. I guess a slightly bigger box than you need is not usually a problem.

	▲	Macha 17 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Huh, this explains why some of my older teachers would call a4 pads as foolscap pads. I guess the paper size had been updated by the time I got to school, but their terminology wasn't.
	▲	bombcar 21 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Foolscap is just half an inch below legal - and I bet having a box a bit larger than what you're putting in is a selling point, not a hindrance.

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alexjm 19 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Many filing cabinets in the US are also sized so you can put letter sized folders in one way, or rotate the folders 90 degrees and legal sized folders will fit correctly.