What is the difference between a4 and letter

The list of document types not to send is fairly lengthy. Both file formats encode and fix the spatial relations between individual elements on a page. The file produced this way is safe to send. Which, by default, makes Acrobat files the best option. Adobe describes Acrobat as:. Roughly speaking, Acrobat is a successor to PostScript.

Like PostScript, Acrobat is a programming language designed to exactly define where on a page objects should be placed. As well, Acrobat includes some occasionally nifty tools for turning these well-defined pages into forms capable of handling new data on-the-fly. From the perspective of someone seeking to distribute formatted pages, the key difference between Acrobat and PostScript is the Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Where Adobe charges money for people to include a PostScript interpreter in their products part of the reason PostScript printers cost more than non-PostScript printers the Acrobat interpreter ie Acrobat Reader is freeware, available for download and included as part of almost every computer or operating system purchase. Which sounds great until you have to create an Acrobat file and realise Adobe has merely changed who they charge.

PostScript files are free to create PostScript printer drivers are free but cost money to view PostScript printers are expensive compared to non-PostScript printers. Acrobat files are free to view Acrobat Reader is free but cost money to create no Adobe-brand tools for creating Acrobat files are free. This service is only available to residents of the US and Canada. Adobe also offers a range of more expensive products in the Acrobat family designed around the needs of corporate workflow.

At first glance it seems relatively simple: restrict your designs and layouts to an area which both sizes can accomodate. If you place an A4- and Letter-sized paper one atop the other, with their top left-hand corners touching, the differences between the two sheets is obvious: Letter is wider than A4; A4 is longer than Letter.

So, for a design or layout to fit safely on both sheet sizes it must be no wider than A4 and no longer than Letter. Put another way, the limits for a design or layout which will fit safely on either page size are the width of an A4 sheet mm or 8. The working area — mm by mm — is well within the bounds noted above. Fill the page with text, however, and a problem occurs if the document is sent to someone using Letter.

The text still fits onto a single US Letter sheet, but it spills over the margins. When a Letter-user prints the file, the page will either not print properly because part of the text is placed into a non-printable portion of the sheet or will print on a second page. The second result is better but neither is desirable and the second is dependent on too many uncontrollable variables in any event.

To avoid this problem, the only option for A4-users sharing documents with Letter-users is to increase their bottom margins to 45 mm.

To again show rather than tell:. With a standard 25 mm margin on all sides, a landscape layout that looks fine on Letter-sized paper encroaches into the danger area on A The layouts presented in miniature above are deliberately simple but the suggested margin changes should work even with more complicated grid-based layouts. Troubles can and will arise, however, with layouts built around a centre axis rather than one of the traditional grids.

A layout built around only one central axis should still display and print acceptably across the paper-size divide with appropriate margin tweaks. Though the sizes now begin with ANSI, they are nevertheless based on the traditional sizes. The most convenient and distinguishing characteristic of ISO paper is that each format has an aspect ratio equal to the square root of two 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. 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. Take note that the height of A1 is equal to the width of A0.

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. 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. Many copy machines have preset magnification factors for enlarging or reducing a copied document in order to print it on a different paper size. 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. And even if you do set it up right, installing a driver update can easily end up wiping out your carefully selected settings.

At ezeep, we know that this is exactly the kind of printer voodoo that drives people nuts. Get Your Bonus Code Now ». View All. Why the difference between A4 and Letter actually matters. Rule 3 Three things never work: Voice chat, printers and projectors. The difference is minimal, but important: A4 is a little taller, while Letter is a little wider. Easily select if you want Letter or A4 paper size for your users. Free Printing for Private Users ezeep Blue is free for private users.