Paper Sizes / Standards

This chapter is about the ISO standards concerned with paper sizes.

The international paper size standard is filed under ISO 216, and it's based on the german DIN 476 standard ("Deutsche Industrie Norm", engl. "german industry standard").

When the standard was devised, the following aspects were important:

  • The base format is a rectangle of exactly 1 m².

    The next larger or smaller size must result from doubling or halving of a side length.

    The aspect ratio of all sizes must be the same.

The respective formula is as follows:

The ratio of height and width (aspect ratio) √2 : 1. The so-called base format is called A0, and its dimensions are 841 x 1189 mm (precisely 1 m²).

The next smaller sizes were calculated from this base format and the formula height : width = √2 : 1. More information can be found in the sub-chapters for each DIN- or ISO series (A, B, C series, ...)

The following subpages are available in this chapter:

DIN A Series


The length-width-ratio (aspect ratio) is √2 : 1. It starts with the DIN A0 format, which measures 841 x 1189 mm. 

DIN B Series


The aspect ratio is √2 : 1. The base format, DIN B0, measures 1000 x 1414 mm. 

DIN C Series


The aspect ratio is &ä#8730;2 : 1. The base format, DIN C0, measures 917 x 1297 mm. 

Machine Formats


The following machine formats are specified by the german industry standard: 

Untrimmed Sheet Formats


This is a short list of common untrimmed formats for printing machines. It includes the corresponding formats for DIN A0 - DIN A4.