what is a paper format

Paper Format

Consistency in the order, structure, and format of a paper allows readers to focus on a paper’s content rather than its presentation.

To format a paper in APA Style, writers can typically use the default settings and automatic formatting tools of their word-processing program or make only minor adjustments.

The guidelines for paper format apply to both student assignments and manuscripts being submitted for publication to a journal. If you are using APA Style to create another kind of work (e.g., a website, conference poster, or PowerPoint presentation), you may need to format your work differently in order to optimize its presentation, for example, by using different line spacing and font sizes. Follow the guidelines of your institution or publisher to adapt APA Style formatting guidelines as needed.

Academic Writer ®

Master academic writing with APA’s essential teaching and learning resource

illustration or abstract figure and computer screen

Course Adoption

Teaching APA Style? Become a course adopter of the 7th edition Publication Manual

illustration of woman using a pencil to point to text on a clipboard

Instructional Aids

Guides, checklists, webinars, tutorials, and sample papers for anyone looking to improve their knowledge of APA Style

Purdue Online Writing Lab College of Liberal Arts

MLA General Format

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

MLA Style specifies guidelines for formatting manuscripts and citing research in writing. MLA Style also provides writers with a system for referencing their sources through parenthetical citation in their essays and Works Cited pages.

Writers who properly use MLA also build their credibility by demonstrating accountability to their source material. Most importantly, the use of MLA style can protect writers from accusations of plagiarism, which is the purposeful or accidental uncredited use of source material produced by other writers.

If you are asked to use MLA format, be sure to consult the MLA Handbook (9th edition). Publishing scholars and graduate students should also consult the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing (3rd edition). The MLA Handbook is available in most writing centers and reference libraries. It is also widely available in bookstores, libraries, and at the MLA web site. See the Additional Resources section of this page for a list of helpful books and sites about using MLA Style.

Paper Format

The preparation of papers and manuscripts in MLA Style is covered in part four of the MLA Style Manual . Below are some basic guidelines for formatting a paper in MLA Style :

General Guidelines

Formatting the First Page of Your Paper

Here is a sample of the first page of a paper in MLA style:

The First Page of an MLA Paper

Section Headings

Writers sometimes use section headings to improve a document’s readability. These sections may include individual chapters or other named parts of a book or essay.

MLA recommends that when dividing an essay into sections you number those sections with an Arabic number and a period followed by a space and the section name.

MLA does not have a prescribed system of headings for books (for more information on headings, please see page 146 in the MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing , 3rd edition). If you are only using one level of headings, meaning that all of the sections are distinct and parallel and have no additional sections that fit within them, MLA recommends that these sections resemble one another grammatically. For instance, if your headings are typically short phrases, make all of the headings short phrases (and not, for example, full sentences). Otherwise, the formatting is up to you. It should, however, be consistent throughout the document.

If you employ multiple levels of headings (some of your sections have sections within sections), you may want to provide a key of your chosen level headings and their formatting to your instructor or editor.

Sample Section Headings

The following sample headings are meant to be used only as a reference. You may employ whatever system of formatting that works best for you so long as it remains consistent throughout the document.

Formatted, unnumbered:

Level 1 Heading: bold, flush left

Level 2 Heading: italics, flush left

Level 3 Heading: centered, bold

Level 4 Heading: centered, italics

Level 5 Heading: underlined, flush left

Generate accurate APA citations for free

The Scribbr Citation Generator will automatically create a flawless APA citation

APA Formatting and Citation (7th Ed.) | Generator, Template, Examples

Published on November 6, 2020 by Raimo Streefkerk . Revised on August 23, 2022.

The 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual provides guidelines for clear communication , citing sources , and formatting documents. This article focuses on paper formatting.

Generate accurate APA citations with Scribbr

Throughout your paper, you need to apply the following APA format guidelines:

Let an expert format your paper

Our APA formatting experts can help you to format your paper according to APA guidelines. They can help you with:

How to set up apa format (with template), apa alphabetization guidelines, apa format template [free download], page header, headings and subheadings, reference page, tables and figures, frequently asked questions about apa format.

References are ordered alphabetically by the first author’s last name. If the author is unknown, order the reference entry by the first meaningful word of the title (ignoring articles: “the”, “a”, or “an”).

Why set up APA format from scratch if you can download Scribbr’s template for free?

Student papers and professional papers have slightly different guidelines regarding the title page, abstract, and running head. Our template is available in Word and Google Docs format for both versions.

In an APA Style paper, every page has a page header. For student papers, the page header usually consists of just a page number in the page’s top-right corner. For professional papers intended for publication, it also includes a running head .

A running head is simply the paper’s title in all capital letters. It is left-aligned and can be up to 50 characters in length. Longer titles are abbreviated .

APA headings have five possible levels. Heading level 1 is used for main sections such as “ Methods ” or “ Results ”. Heading levels 2 to 5 are used for subheadings. Each heading level is formatted differently.

Want to know how many heading levels you should use, when to use which heading level, and how to set up heading styles in Word or Google Docs? Then check out our in-depth article on APA headings .

The title page is the first page of an APA Style paper. There are different guidelines for student and professional papers.

Both versions include the paper title and author’s name and affiliation. The student version includes the course number and name, instructor name, and due date of the assignment. The professional version includes an author note and running head .

For more information on writing a striking title, crediting multiple authors (with different affiliations), and writing the author note, check out our in-depth article on the APA title page .

APA title page - student version (7th edition)

The abstract is a 150–250 word summary of your paper. An abstract is usually required in professional papers, but it’s rare to include one in student papers (except for longer texts like theses and dissertations).

The abstract is placed on a separate page after the title page . At the top of the page, write the section label “Abstract” (bold and centered). The contents of the abstract appear directly under the label. Unlike regular paragraphs, the first line is not indented. Abstracts are usually written as a single paragraph without headings or blank lines.

Directly below the abstract, you may list three to five relevant keywords . On a new line, write the label “Keywords:” (italicized and indented), followed by the keywords in lowercase letters, separated by commas.

APA Style does not provide guidelines for formatting the table of contents . It’s also not a required paper element in either professional or student papers. If your instructor wants you to include a table of contents, it’s best to follow the general guidelines.

Place the table of contents on a separate page between the abstract and introduction. Write the section label “Contents” at the top (bold and centered), press “Enter” once, and list the important headings with corresponding page numbers.

The APA reference page is placed after the main body of your paper but before any appendices . Here you list all sources that you’ve cited in your paper (through APA in-text citations ). APA provides guidelines for formatting the references as well as the page itself.

Creating APA Style references

Play around with the Scribbr Citation Example Generator below to learn about the APA reference format of the most common source types or generate APA citations for free with Scribbr’s APA Citation Generator .

Formatting the reference page

Write the section label “References” at the top of a new page (bold and centered). Place the reference entries directly under the label in alphabetical order.

Finally, apply a hanging indent , meaning the first line of each reference is left-aligned, and all subsequent lines are indented 0.5 inches.

Tables and figures are presented in a similar format. They’re preceded by a number and title and followed by explanatory notes (if necessary).

Use bold styling for the word “Table” or “Figure” and the number, and place the title on a separate line directly below it (in italics and title case). Try to keep tables clean; don’t use any vertical lines, use as few horizontal lines as possible, and keep row and column labels concise.

Keep the design of figures as simple as possible. Include labels and a legend if needed, and only use color when necessary (not to make it look more appealing).

Check out our in-depth article about table and figure notes to learn when to use notes and how to format them.

The easiest way to set up APA format in Word is to download Scribbr’s free APA format template for student papers or professional papers.

Alternatively, you can watch Scribbr’s 5-minute step-by-step tutorial or check out our APA format guide with examples.

APA Style papers should be written in a font that is legible and widely accessible. For example:

The same font and font size is used throughout the document, including the running head , page numbers, headings , and the reference page . Text in footnotes and figure images may be smaller and use single line spacing.

You need an APA in-text citation and reference entry . Each source type has its own format; for example, a webpage citation is different from a book citation .

Use Scribbr’s free APA Citation Generator to generate flawless citations in seconds or take a look at our APA citation examples .

Yes, page numbers are included on all pages, including the title page , table of contents , and reference page . Page numbers should be right-aligned in the page header.

To insert page numbers in Microsoft Word or Google Docs, click ‘Insert’ and then ‘Page number’.

APA format is widely used by professionals, researchers, and students in the social and behavioral sciences, including fields like education, psychology, and business.

Be sure to check the guidelines of your university or the journal you want to be published in to double-check which style you should be using.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Streefkerk, R. (2022, August 23). APA Formatting and Citation (7th Ed.) | Generator, Template, Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved March 2, 2023, from https://www.scribbr.com/apa-style/format/

Is this article helpful?

Raimo Streefkerk

Other students also liked, apa title page (7th edition) | template for students & professionals, creating apa reference entries, beginner's guide to apa in-text citation, scribbr apa citation checker.

An innovative new tool that checks your APA citations with AI software. Say goodbye to inaccurate citations!

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

13.1 Formatting a Research Paper

Learning objectives.

In this chapter, you will learn how to use APA style , the documentation and formatting style followed by the American Psychological Association, as well as MLA style , from the Modern Language Association. There are a few major formatting styles used in academic texts, including AMA, Chicago, and Turabian:

While all the formatting and citation styles have their own use and applications, in this chapter we focus our attention on the two styles you are most likely to use in your academic studies: APA and MLA.

If you find that the rules of proper source documentation are difficult to keep straight, you are not alone. Writing a good research paper is, in and of itself, a major intellectual challenge. Having to follow detailed citation and formatting guidelines as well may seem like just one more task to add to an already-too-long list of requirements.

Following these guidelines, however, serves several important purposes. First, it signals to your readers that your paper should be taken seriously as a student’s contribution to a given academic or professional field; it is the literary equivalent of wearing a tailored suit to a job interview. Second, it shows that you respect other people’s work enough to give them proper credit for it. Finally, it helps your reader find additional materials if he or she wishes to learn more about your topic.

Furthermore, producing a letter-perfect APA-style paper need not be burdensome. Yes, it requires careful attention to detail. However, you can simplify the process if you keep these broad guidelines in mind:

General Formatting Guidelines

This chapter provides detailed guidelines for using the citation and formatting conventions developed by the American Psychological Association, or APA. Writers in disciplines as diverse as astrophysics, biology, psychology, and education follow APA style. The major components of a paper written in APA style are listed in the following box.

These are the major components of an APA-style paper:

Body, which includes the following:

All these components must be saved in one document, not as separate documents.

The title page of your paper includes the following information:

List the first three elements in the order given in the previous list, centered about one third of the way down from the top of the page. Use the headers and footers tool of your word-processing program to add the header, with the title text at the left and the page number in the upper-right corner. Your title page should look like the following example.

Beyond the Hype: Evaluating Low-Carb Diets cover page

The next page of your paper provides an abstract , or brief summary of your findings. An abstract does not need to be provided in every paper, but an abstract should be used in papers that include a hypothesis. A good abstract is concise—about one hundred fifty to two hundred fifty words—and is written in an objective, impersonal style. Your writing voice will not be as apparent here as in the body of your paper. When writing the abstract, take a just-the-facts approach, and summarize your research question and your findings in a few sentences.

In Chapter 12 “Writing a Research Paper” , you read a paper written by a student named Jorge, who researched the effectiveness of low-carbohydrate diets. Read Jorge’s abstract. Note how it sums up the major ideas in his paper without going into excessive detail.

Write an abstract summarizing your paper. Briefly introduce the topic, state your findings, and sum up what conclusions you can draw from your research. Use the word count feature of your word-processing program to make sure your abstract does not exceed one hundred fifty words.

Depending on your field of study, you may sometimes write research papers that present extensive primary research, such as your own experiment or survey. In your abstract, summarize your research question and your findings, and briefly indicate how your study relates to prior research in the field.

Margins, Pagination, and Headings

APA style requirements also address specific formatting concerns, such as margins, pagination, and heading styles, within the body of the paper. Review the following APA guidelines.

Use these general guidelines to format the paper:

Begin formatting the final draft of your paper according to APA guidelines. You may work with an existing document or set up a new document if you choose. Include the following:

APA style uses section headings to organize information, making it easy for the reader to follow the writer’s train of thought and to know immediately what major topics are covered. Depending on the length and complexity of the paper, its major sections may also be divided into subsections, sub-subsections, and so on. These smaller sections, in turn, use different heading styles to indicate different levels of information. In essence, you are using headings to create a hierarchy of information.

The following heading styles used in APA formatting are listed in order of greatest to least importance:

Visually, the hierarchy of information is organized as indicated in Table 13.1 “Section Headings” .

Table 13.1 Section Headings

A college research paper may not use all the heading levels shown in Table 13.1 “Section Headings” , but you are likely to encounter them in academic journal articles that use APA style. For a brief paper, you may find that level 1 headings suffice. Longer or more complex papers may need level 2 headings or other lower-level headings to organize information clearly. Use your outline to craft your major section headings and determine whether any subtopics are substantial enough to require additional levels of headings.

Working with the document you developed in Note 13.11 “Exercise 2” , begin setting up the heading structure of the final draft of your research paper according to APA guidelines. Include your title and at least two to three major section headings, and follow the formatting guidelines provided above. If your major sections should be broken into subsections, add those headings as well. Use your outline to help you.

Because Jorge used only level 1 headings, his Exercise 3 would look like the following:

Citation Guidelines

In-text citations.

Throughout the body of your paper, include a citation whenever you quote or paraphrase material from your research sources. As you learned in Chapter 11 “Writing from Research: What Will I Learn?” , the purpose of citations is twofold: to give credit to others for their ideas and to allow your reader to follow up and learn more about the topic if desired. Your in-text citations provide basic information about your source; each source you cite will have a longer entry in the references section that provides more detailed information.

In-text citations must provide the name of the author or authors and the year the source was published. (When a given source does not list an individual author, you may provide the source title or the name of the organization that published the material instead.) When directly quoting a source, it is also required that you include the page number where the quote appears in your citation.

This information may be included within the sentence or in a parenthetical reference at the end of the sentence, as in these examples.

Epstein (2010) points out that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (p. 137).

Here, the writer names the source author when introducing the quote and provides the publication date in parentheses after the author’s name. The page number appears in parentheses after the closing quotation marks and before the period that ends the sentence.

Addiction researchers caution that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (Epstein, 2010, p. 137).

Here, the writer provides a parenthetical citation at the end of the sentence that includes the author’s name, the year of publication, and the page number separated by commas. Again, the parenthetical citation is placed after the closing quotation marks and before the period at the end of the sentence.

As noted in the book Junk Food, Junk Science (Epstein, 2010, p. 137), “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive.”

Here, the writer chose to mention the source title in the sentence (an optional piece of information to include) and followed the title with a parenthetical citation. Note that the parenthetical citation is placed before the comma that signals the end of the introductory phrase.

David Epstein’s book Junk Food, Junk Science (2010) pointed out that “junk food cannot be considered addictive in the same way that we think of psychoactive drugs as addictive” (p. 137).

Another variation is to introduce the author and the source title in your sentence and include the publication date and page number in parentheses within the sentence or at the end of the sentence. As long as you have included the essential information, you can choose the option that works best for that particular sentence and source.

Citing a book with a single author is usually a straightforward task. Of course, your research may require that you cite many other types of sources, such as books or articles with more than one author or sources with no individual author listed. You may also need to cite sources available in both print and online and nonprint sources, such as websites and personal interviews. Chapter 13 “APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting” , Section 13.2 “Citing and Referencing Techniques” and Section 13.3 “Creating a References Section” provide extensive guidelines for citing a variety of source types.

Writing at Work

APA is just one of several different styles with its own guidelines for documentation, formatting, and language usage. Depending on your field of interest, you may be exposed to additional styles, such as the following:

References List

The brief citations included in the body of your paper correspond to the more detailed citations provided at the end of the paper in the references section. In-text citations provide basic information—the author’s name, the publication date, and the page number if necessary—while the references section provides more extensive bibliographical information. Again, this information allows your reader to follow up on the sources you cited and do additional reading about the topic if desired.

The specific format of entries in the list of references varies slightly for different source types, but the entries generally include the following information:

The references page is double spaced and lists entries in alphabetical order by the author’s last name. If an entry continues for more than one line, the second line and each subsequent line are indented five spaces. Review the following example. ( Chapter 13 “APA and MLA Documentation and Formatting” , Section 13.3 “Creating a References Section” provides extensive guidelines for formatting reference entries for different types of sources.)

In APA style, book and article titles are formatted in sentence case, not title case. Sentence case means that only the first word is capitalized, along with any proper nouns.

Key Takeaways

Writing for Success by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

A Paper Sizes - Quick Lookup

Select the standard paper size from the 'Size' selector and the unit from the 'Unit' selector - the dimensions will be shown in the dimensions box.

Dimensions Of A Series Paper Sizes

The dimensions of the A series paper sizes, as defined by the ISO 216 standard, are given in the table below the diagram in both millimetres and inches (cm measurements can be obtained by dividing mm value by 10). The A Series paper size chart, below left, gives a visual representation of how the sizes relate to each other - for example A5 is half of A4 size paper and A2 is half of A1 size paper.

A Series Paper Sizes Chart.

Table of Paper Sizes From 4A0 to A10

To obtain paper sizes in centimetres, convert mm values to cm by dividing by 10 and in feet by dividing inch values by 12. More units here and sizes in pixels here .

var cid = '9188409595'; var pid = 'ca-pub-2489774504100527'; var slotId = 'div-gpt-ad-papersizes_org-medrectangle-3-0'; var ffid = 1; var alS = 1021 % 1000; var container = document.getElementById(slotId); var ins = document.createElement('ins'); ins.id = slotId + '-asloaded'; ins.className = 'adsbygoogle ezasloaded'; ins.dataset.adClient = pid; ins.dataset.adChannel = cid; ins.style.display = 'block'; ins.style.minWidth = container.attributes.ezaw.value + 'px'; ins.style.width = '100%'; ins.style.height = container.attributes.ezah.value + 'px'; container.style.maxHeight = container.style.minHeight + 'px'; container.style.maxWidth = container.style.minWidth + 'px'; container.appendChild(ins); (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); window.ezoSTPixelAdd(slotId, 'stat_source_id', 44); window.ezoSTPixelAdd(slotId, 'adsensetype', 1); var lo = new MutationObserver(window.ezaslEvent); lo.observe(document.getElementById(slotId + '-asloaded'), { attributes: true }); 4A0 & 2A0 - The DIN 476 Oversize Formats

The paper sizes bigger than A0, 4A0 & 2A0, aren't formally defined by ISO 216 but are commonly used for oversized paper. The origin of these formats is in the German DIN 476 standard, that was the original base document from which ISO 216 was derived. 2A0 is sometimes described as A00, however this naming convention is not used for 4A0.

A Series Paper Size Tolerances

ISO 216 specifies tolerances for the production of A series paper sizes as follows:

A Series Paper Sizes Defined

The A series paper sizes are defined in ISO 216 by the following requirements:

Note: For reference the last item is there because the root 2 aspect ratio doesn't always give a whole number.

For more information about A paper size areas and areas of sizes other than A0 in square metres and square feet click here .

International Usage

The A series paper sizes are now in common use throughout the world apart from in the US, Canada and parts of Mexico . The A4 size has become the standard business letter size in English speaking countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the UK, that formerly used British Imperial sizes . In Europe the A paper sizes were adopted as the formal standard in the mid 20th century and from there they spread across the globe.

RA & SRA Untrimmed Sizes

RA & SRA sizes define untrimmed paper for commercial printing. These formats are designed to allow for ink bleed during the printing process so that the paper can then be trimmed to one of the A series sizes. Click here for more on RA & SRA sizes .

A3+ (Super A3)

A3 Plus, or Super A3 as it is sometimes known, is not an ISO 216 paper size. It has dimensions of 330mm x 483mm (13" x 19"). This gives it an aspect ratio of 1:1.468 rather than the 1:root 2 aspect ratio of the ISO series paper sizes. In actuality the A3+/Super A3 name is quite misleading as this paper size is known as B+ or Super B in the United States and is ANSI B with a 1" margin for print bleed.

The Visual Communication Guy

Learn Visually. Communicate Powerfully.

How To Organize a Paper: The Narrative Format

What is the Narrative Format?

The narrative format in writing is a structure good for telling stories and sharing anecdotes and messages. The narrative format doesn’t necessarily need to follow a strict order or series of events to be effective, but all good narratives or stories should include five major components:

When Do I Use the Narrative Method?

The narrative method can encompass an entire work (like when you’re writing a novel or short story) or it can fall within other formats, like when you want to tell a brief story to make something clear or to argue a point. The narrative format is good in speeches and less formal papers where personal experiences and stories are meant to engage audiences and provide anecdotal evidence of something. The narrative format is great for essays, op-eds, creative non-fiction documents, and other commentary. It’s less commonly used in formal reports, proposals, memos, and traditional inter-office communications.

Consider using the narrative format within larger papers or presentations and use the format multiple times. It’s often good to tell stories in documents and speeches to grab and retain attention. The key is that you use all five components and that there is a clear purpose in telling each story.

How Does the Narrative Format Work?

There is no particular order in which narrative elements show up in a story, though it’s usually best if characters and the setting are established immediately. The following definitions should help you as you develop each of the five narrative elements:

The Narrative Structure Using the Tortoise and the Hare

Using one of the most recognizable and simple stories, this is how the narrative format works in the Tortoise and the Hare:

Characters: A tortoise and a hare

Setting: A area where the hare and the tortoise have enough room to run a race with a clearly defined finish line. As most versions of the story are told, the setting likely included areas where the hare could pull off the trail.

Plot: The slow tortoise and the fast hare agree to run a race, they define a trail, and they race each other.

Conflict: The hare is so confident that he will win the race, he determines he doesn’t need to try at all to win. In this state of mind, he takes a nap, not realizing the persistence of the tortoise. He may actually lose the race after all.

Resolution: Despite the hare’s confidence, the tortoise wins the race.

If any one of these elements were missing, the story wouldn’t be complete. It’s important that the reader can connect the dots, understand the conflict, and know what happens to the characters and the situation at the end.

Shop for your perfect poster print or digital download at our online store!

Paper Sizes and Formats Explained: The Difference Between A4 and Letter

The difference between a4 and letter.

Have you ever really taken a look at the packs of computer paper you buy ? Or can you automatically eye the standard paper used for letters and academic purposes? You have more than likely heard of A5 or Tabloid , but for many, the only two page sizes that really matter are A4 or Letter . But there exist a number of paper sizes that are relevant to our everyday lives, and knowing them can save you time and money when printing and copying.

The Systems in Existence

Height-to-width aspect ratio alternatives, simplified enlargement and reduction, a fit for any envelope, north american sizes, printing a4 documents on letter and vice versa, untrimmed paper pages, something to think about.

Though other paper size standards exist, there are two predominant systems in use today. They are the international and North American systems.

As the term implies, the international standard, also known as the ISO 216 standard, is used throughout the world. It is based on an aspect ratio of the square root of two, like the side of a square and its diagonal. This idea was originally proposed by the German scientist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg in 1786. In 1922, Dr. Walter Porstmann brought Lichtenberg’s ideas into being in Germany. This new standard was known as the DIN 476 standard. The system became widely used during World War II. The most commonly used ISO paper size is A4.

The North American system is used primarily in the USA and Canada. The current sizes are based on traditional sizes such as Letter (8.5 in × 11 in) and Legal (8.5 in × 14 in) . The names of North American sizes have started with ANSI ever since the adoption of ANSI/ASME Y14.1 by the American National Standards Institute in 1995. Though the sizes now begin with ANSI, they are nevertheless based on the traditional sizes.

Paper Sizes Quick Lookup

The most convenient and distinguishing characteristic of ISO paper is that each format has an aspect ratio equal to the square root of two (1:4142) which makes it simple to enlarge or reduce a document for printing on another ISO paper format. The most popular series of the ISO standard is the A series. The most widely used paper of this series is the A4 format. All paper sizes of this series have a name that consists of an A followed by a number. The larger that number, the smaller the paper.

The basis for the whole system is the A0 format which has an area of one square meter. With an aspect ratio equal to the square root of two, a sheet of A0 paper ends up being 841 × 1189 millimeters. Figuring out the dimensions of the subsequent paper sizes does not require any real mathematical strain since each ensuing size can be created by simply folding the paper in half with the crease parallel to the shortest sides. If you do this with an A0 sheet of paper, the resulting dimensions will be 594 × 841 millimeters, or the A1 format. Take note that the height of A1 is equal to the width of A0.

Two other ISO paper series exist—B and C. The B series was brought into being to provide a wider range of paper sizes, where as the C series is used only for envelopes. The B paper sizes are a bit larger than their A series counterparts and are based on the geometric mean of two consecutive A series sheets. For example, B4 is between A3 and A4 in size, and B5 is between A4 and A5.

The C series was introduced to provide an envelope with enough space for an A series sheet. The sizes of the A series fit in C series envelopes of the same number. That is, a sheet of A4 easily fits into a C4 envelope. The C sizes are just between the A and B series. Below are tables with the dimensions of all three series. All of them have a height-to-width ratio equal to the square root of two.

Though these are the main formats of the ISO standard, there are other sizes used for printed items such as labels, business cards, and so on. They are often derived by cutting standard sizes into equal parts. This often leads to sizes with an aspect ratio other than the square root of two.

Depending on the project purpose, aspect ratios vary. Standard paper formats can be presented in the formula of the square root of two, according to the ISO paper size concept. Once non-standard solutions are required, the same parallel cutting takes place with the only difference being the number of achieved parts. As a result, 3, 4 or 8 equal pieces are obtained. Here are some samples of long sizes.

There are standard ways to apply this or that sub-standard size format. For instance, one-third of A4 is preferable for invitations and personal DL envelopes, while one-fourth of A4 is a nice option for flyers. Small-sized formats aren’t preferable for large volumes of text—it should typically be no more than a simple and brief message.

ISO Tips to Save You Time

Many copy machines have preset magnification factors for enlarging or reducing a copied document in order to print it on a different paper size. These presets typically take the form of buttons labelled A3→A4 and so forth. This eliminates wasted margins and saves you the trouble of trying to guess the right magnification factor, which can lead to a heap of misspent paper. Below is a table of the magnification factors between the most common A sizes in case the copiers at your local library do not have such presets.

The consistent aspect ratio of the ISO papers makes it easy to fit larger paper sizes into smaller envelopes. This can be done by simply folding the larger papers in half (crease parallel to the shorter sides) until you reach the desired size. The difference in the number of the page sizes equals the number of times you should fold it. So if you have a C4 or B4 envelope and a sheet of A2 paper, you should fold it in half twice. The same method works for filing larger paper sizes in file folders of a smaller size.

This works with the B and C envelope formats. Another commonly used format is the DL format. A DL format envelope will accommodate an A4 sheet folded in thirds or an A5 sheet folded in half lengthwise. Read more about common envelope sizes and styles .

The North American paper sizes are based on traditional formats with arbitrary aspect ratios. The most popular formats of the traditional sizes are the Letter (8.5 × 11 inches) , Legal (8.5 × 14 inches) and Tabloid (11 × 17 inches) formats. You more than likely use these formats in your everyday life. Letter is the standard for business and academic documents. The Legal format is used to make legal pads, and the Tabloid format is commonly used to make tabloids or smaller sized newspapers. Very little is known about the origin of the traditional American paper formats.

There have been a few attempts to standardize the paper industry in America. President Hoover brought about the Government size when he ordered that all governmental documents and forms be printed on paper with the dimensions of 8 × 10 ½ inches. The usage of this format did not find its way to the general public, so President Reagan later made the Letter format the standard again.

In 1995, the American National Standards Institute adopted the ANSI/ASME Y14.1 standard. The different formats of this system are denoted by ANSI followed by a letter. Even though this standard exists, the traditional sizes still remain the most widely used.

This relatively young standard is based on the traditional Letter format (ANSI A). The Letter format is comparable to the ISO A4 format in as much as it is widely used for business and academic needs, but the sizes do differ.

The ANSI paper formats are similar to those of the ISO standard in that cutting a sheet in half will produce two sheets of the next size. The difference lies in both size and the aspect ratio. The ANSI sizes have an aspect ratio that alternates between 1.2941 and 1.5455. This makes enlarging and reducing a page to fit other ANSI formats difficult and less systematic than with the ISO layouts. You will more than likely end up with margins differing from the original page.

The use of American paper sizes often leads to many problems when it comes to the international exchange of documents and therefore has become less common in universities where students are more often held to international standards when attending conferences or submitting articles to international journals. Luckily, documents can be prepared to be printed on both ANSI and ISO paper formats.

A business partner from Germany has just sent you a document in the A4 format that you need to print out. You print the document and notice that there are some parts cut off at the top and bottom of each page. This is due to the difference in size between the A4 and Letter (ANSI A) formats. To print or copy an A4 document on Letter, you should set the magnification factor to 94% since the Letter format is 6% less tall than A4. If you plan on printing a Letter document on A4, you should set the magnification factor to 97% since A4 is 3% less wide.

Unlike trimmed sizes, which are pieces with the final dimensional ratio, untrimmed formats are slightly bigger than the A and B series. This difference comes in handy for commercial printing, allowing the publishing of large volumes of interconnected pages in the right proportions. At the same time, they are functional tools for rotating printing presses.

There are two types of untrimmed sizes—raw format A (shortly RA) and supplementary raw format A (briefly, SRA). They are adjusted to the final trim after binding. Here is a quick sample: if A4 equals 100%, RA is 5% bigger, and SRA is 15% bigger correspondingly. The “square root of two” rule is also valid, although the dimensions of accepted untrimmed formats are rounded.

Which paper type you use really depends on your physical location. Some people should keep a supply of both ISO and ANSI paper on hand. Such people include university students and those who do business internationally or often send mail abroad. Many of your local office supply stores carry both types of paper regardless of the country, but sometimes it may require special ordering.

Thanks to Markus Kuhn for his wonderful article on paper sizes .

It is time to practice your knowledge!

Design and print all sorts of flyers, brochures, pamphlets, booklets and other materials on various paper sizes in Swift Publisher for Mac.

what is a paper format

IMAGES

VIDEO

COMMENTS