Weights and Sizes of Papers

Paper Weights

The weight of metric paper is given in grams per square meter (gms). By definition, one square meter is one A0 size sheet or 16 A4 size sheets. The weight of United States letter size paper is given in pounds per 500 sheet ream of uncut C size paper. For the letter size paper, a sheet is cut into 4 pages so that a cut ream of letter size paper, 500 letter size sheets, weighs 5 pounds if the paper is nominally 20 pound paper. Note that each type of paper has a different "base size," so 200 gsm of one paper will give a differnt Lbs/ream equivalent for a different paper. For instance: 20 lbs of Bond is almost the same as 28 of cover.

Weight in Pounds	Bond Dual Purpose Duplicator Ledger Safety Writing	Cover	Bristol	Index	Offset Text Book
	Basis size (inches)
	17.0x22.0	20.0x26.0	22.5x28.5	25.5x30.5	25.0x38.0
20	75.3 gsm	54.1 gsm	43.9 gsm	36.2 gsm	29.6 gsm
24	90.3 gsm	65.0 gsm	52.7 gsm	43.4 gsm	35.6 gsm
28	105.4 gsm	75.8 gsm	61.5 gsm	50.7 gsm	41.5 gsm
60	225.8 gsm	162.4 gsm	131.7 gsm	108.6 gsm	88.9 gsm
67	252.1 gsm	181.3 gsm	147.1 gsm	121.2 gsm	99.3 gsm
80	301.0 gsm	216.5 gsm	175.6 gsm	144.8 gsm	118.5 gsm
110	413.9 gsm	297.7 gsm	241.4 gsm	199.1 gsm	163.0 gsm

Paper Sizes

United States Paper Sizes in Inches

Name	Size
Executive	7.5 x 10
A (letter)	8 1/2 x 11
Legal	8.5 x 14
B (ledger)	11 x 17
Super A3/B	13 x 19
C	17 x 22
D	22 x 34
E	34 x 44
F	28 x 40
G	11 x (22 1/2 to 90)
H	28 x (44 to 143)
H	28 x (44 to 143)
J	34 x (55 to 176)
K	40 x (55 to 143)

Metric Trimmed Paper Sizes

Metric Name	Metric Size in mm	Size in Inches	Closest United States Size	Size in Inches
A8	53 x 74	2.07 x 2.91	Business card	2 x 3 1/2
A7	74 x 105	2.91 x 4.13	3 x 5	3 x 5
A6	105 x 148	4.13 x 5.83	Microfiche	4.13 x 5.83
A5	148 x 210	5.83 x 8.27	5 x 8	5 x 8
A4	210 x 297	8.27 x 11.69	A	8 1/2 x 11
A3	297 x 420	11.69 x 16.54	B	11 x 17
A2	420 x 594	16.54 x 23.39	C	17 x 22
A1	594 x 841	23.39 x 33.11	D	22 x 34
A0	841 x 1189	33.11 x 46.81	E	34 x 44
2A	1189 x 1681	46.81 x 66.22

Metric Paper Sizes
The basic size of metric paper is one square meter, which is 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.
For a given sheet size, United States paper is a little wider than metric paper in the short dimension, and a little shorter than metric paper in the long dimension.
As can be seen, 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.

Site Navigation Bar