Application
Before the adoption of ISO 216, many different paper formats were used internationally. These formats did not fit into a coherent system and were defined in terms of non-metric units.
The ISO 216 formats are organized around the ratio ; two sheets next to each other together have the same ratio, sideways. In scaled photocopying, for example, two A4 sheets reduced to A5 size fit exactly onto one A4 sheet, and an A4 sheet in magnified size onto an A3 sheet, in each case there is neither waste nor want.
The principal countries not generally using the ISO paper sizes are the United States, Canada and Venezuela, which use the Letter, Legal and Executive system. Although they have also officially adopted the ISO 216 paper format, Colombia, Mexico, The Philippines and Chile also use mostly U.S. paper sizes in ordinary usage.
Rectangular sheets of paper with the ratio are popular in paper folding, where they are sometimes called "A4 rectangles" or "silver rectangles". However, in other contexts, the term "silver rectangle" can also refer to a rectangle in the proportion, known as the silver ratio.
Read more about this topic: ISO 216
Famous quotes containing the word application:
“My business is stanching blood and feeding fainting men; my post the open field between the bullet and the hospital. I sometimes discuss the application of a compress or a wisp of hay under a broken limb, but not the bearing and merits of a political movement. I make gruel—not speeches; I write letters home for wounded soldiers, not political addresses.”
—Clara Barton (1821–1912)
“We will not be imposed upon by this vast application of forces. We believe that most things will have to be accomplished still by the application called Industry. We are rather pleased, after all, to consider the small private, but both constant and accumulated, force which stands behind every spade in the field. This it is that makes the valleys shine, and the deserts really bloom.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“There are very few things impossible in themselves; and we do not want means to conquer difficulties so much as application and resolution in the use of means.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)