Paper Sizing

Paper made from flowers for commercial purposes. It’s a possibility.

As I handed in the last of my papers, during winter break and overseas, I had a situation where I couldn’t find the correct paper size to send to Taiwan. I’m specifically speaking about the A4 paper size (210 x 290 mm).

Here in Canada, when I asked for A4 paper, the store clerks pointed me in the direction of all the 8.5″ X 11″ paper. Turns out that A4 paper is synonymous with 8.5″ X 11″ in Canada. It comes as no surprise that we in Canada use American standards. The problem was solved by cutting down the larger legal size paper to the correct A4 size.

During this little situation, my beef:

“Why doesn’t Taiwan use American sizing?!”

Implicit in this thought is that America is omnipresent (and thereby Canada, by association).

When I went and did some research, I found out that Taiwan actually follows international paper sizing.

Well.

“Why doesn’t Canada use A4 paper sizing?!”