print size

[frank ferreira]

gentlemen, reading the english magazines at b&n i find references as to what size enlargement you can expect with a given negative and a given conditionas an a-4 or a-3 or other coded sizes and i have no idea what the dimensions would be in inches. does any one have an explanation? please forgive the lower case but i cannot type. thanks, frank

[tim atherton]

they are really no more coded than "letter" or "legal" or "SuperA3" - the are the metric paper sizes. This is the iso standard used in most of the rest of the world apart from the US and Canada:

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-paper.html

It's actually a nicely elegant system - I find the proportions mor epleasing than the US system. FOr printing 35mm film, I often used to order A4 Ilford darkroom paper as it fitted the 35mm format better. Printing via inket/ultrachrome inks now, I try to get hold of the papers in metric sizes when I can, because they fit the 4x5/8x10 proportions better than the the US sizes, which most of the papers come in now

The basic size of metric paper is one square meter, which is basically the area of an A0 sheet of metric paper. This size, taken along with the aspect ratio, fully determines the size and shape of metric reprographics paper. A0 size folded once is A1 size, folded twice is A2 size, folded thrice is A3 size, and folded 4 times is A4 size. Metric paper also has a B series of sizes for posters and wallcharts and a C series of sizes for envelopes.

[tim atherton]

If you need it in inches http://www.littlebit.com/ideas/papersize.htm

[j. kelly adams]

Tim, thanks for the 'inches'.

[frank ferreira]

thanks for the explanation. seems like a very usable system. thanks again to all responders. frank ferreira