European print sizes

I have received some requests for prints from the Czech Republic. I

sent 8x10 paper within which I printed in 6x4 proportions enlarged to

fill as much of the 8x10 as possible. The next request was for larger

size. The correct proportion for 6x4 is 8x12 (20x30cm) but I think

this wouldn't be big enough for them. What is the next size paper

available in European labs to print within the 6x4 inch crop?

2A0 -- 1,189 x 1,682 mm -- 46,8 x 66,2 in

 

A0 -- 841 x 1,189 mm -- 33,1 x 46,8 in

 

A1 -- 594 x 841 mm -- 23,4 x 33,1 in

 

A2 -- 420 x 594 mm -- 16,5 x 23,4 in

 

A3 -- 297 x 420 mm -- 11,7 x 16,5 in

 

A4 -- 210 x 297 mm -- 8,3 x 11,7 in

 

A5 -- 148 x 210 mm -- 5,8 x 8,3 in

 

A6 -- 105 x 148 mm -- 4,1 x 5,8 in

 

A7 -- 74 x 105 mm -- 2,9 x 4,1 in

Whats funny is that one of my decade old RIPS has about three different sizes for the A series "metric" prints, plus DIN, plus a Japanese B series of metric sizes, plus American Engineering and Architectural sizes. I dont think it has the "double elephant" size! There are several hundred "standard paper/print sizes", each industry seems to think their little world of sizes is a "standard". Here as a printer I cannot afford to stock a million different standards, so alot of "standard" sizes are just "converted" (cut/slit) from other standard sizes. With the rise of digital printing, now everyone is an expert, and thus alot of jobs involve alot more scrap. With a paper shipment I got in friday of 998Lbs, some is sold, alot is used in house. A huge amount goes into the trashcan. In a larger job where one has some leadtime, I try to get the oddball size in the weird roll size to reduce scrap.

Thanks Eric. Now I know I can upload a file and tell the printer over there to print it on A3. Then email the customer to pick up at the printer.

<p>

In my experience European C-print sizes from labs tend to be in whole cms. For aspect ratio 2x3 they are (see, for example http://www.foto.com/fr/p3.asp):

<ul>

<li>10x15 cm</li>

<li>20x30 cm</li>

<li>30x45 cm</li>

<li>40x60 cm</li>

</ul>

</p>

<p>

AFAIK the A3 and A4 sizes are for people printing their pictures on their desktop inkjets.

</p>

When I was in architecture school in the forties we prepared our presentations on WHATMAN'S art papers which were hand made in several texture finishes, and supplied in traditional sizes of the 'deckel' (frame) upon which they were made; and which had names such as 'Imperial', 'Elephant', 'Double Elephant', etc. These were also the sizes that traditional printers used and the names of the book sizes were derived therefrom, e.g. 'Folio', 'Quarto', 'Octavo', 'Duodecimo', etc. according to the way the sheets were folded before binding into the book. It is my understanding that these sizes are still available today in some papers though most are now supplied cut from large rolls and packaged to standard sizes.

Gotta love pnet. I'm out in the boonies with my kids and spotty reception on my phone. In comes sms message from Europe asking to re+spec for larger sizes. Tough to browse the net and research I fire a message to the Leica forum. Eric gives me the A3 standard and I fire it back to Europe a go on with my kids...

 

Only now it got a little more complicated with the sizes after Dan's post but at least I know that the next size up is around 30x40 centimeters. Thanks folks.

In a couple of requests to sell customers metric A series papers; I have had them come in inch dimensions, with dumb truncation errors, or folks who used 2.5cm per inch, instead of 2.54cm per inch. This adds to the fun and games of printing! With a printer that holds a stack of sheets of paper in a tray, one time we had metric paper that tended to jam. Here the convertor had cut the stack a of A series paper a grunt too wide. <BR><BR>In one embarrassing service call we made a decade plus ago on an 36" engineering copier, we had a dark band at both edges. The girl who worked for me had the service tech fly in, and it was discovered the 36 inch wide roll was really 36 1/2" on one batch we had. The local service guy said it was the fuser belt, and got handle happy and was tweaking the tensions, and had the belt going from one end one day, to the other end another day, trying to center the belt on the too wide roll, that wasnt even known yet!.

Rene, you're opening a can of worms. I just googled for poster sizes and discovered a 50x75 offer, but haven't seen a fitting frame yet, while 50x70 seems very common, because it's roughly DIN B2 which is 50x70.7cm exactly.

Here in Europe we don't like to mention exact mms. When paper comes in it is usually a mm to broad in each dimension (talking full size sheets, at least 63x88cm).

 

There seem to be 30, 40, and 50cm rolls of photographic paper around. OTOH nobody knows if any local printshop isn't using oddest imaginable paper formats and cuts them down. At work we feed our digital presses with SRA3 (32x45cm) sheets for example.

Ikea frame sizes are European (metric), check their catalogue.

As a kid in Holland I used to print 18x24 cm; 30x40 cm and 50x60 cm. Printing paper came in those sizes.

Here in Germany the print sizes are independent of the DIN A.. notation (the DIN sizes are used for letters, notepads, printed posters etc.). The nominal sizes for photographic print are usually in full centimers; however, the actual sizes are somewhat off... A few examples from my printer:

 

nominal (cm) actual (cm)

10 x 15 10.2 x 15.2

13 x 18 12.7 x 18

20 x 30 20.3 x 30

30 x 45 30.5 x 44.5

 

Carsten

 

http://www.cabophoto.com/

wow, the formatting of the little table is _really_ nice... Another try<br><br>

 

nominal (cm) <-> actual (cm)<br>

10 x 15 <-> 10.2 x 15.2<br>

13 x 18 <-> 12.7 x 18<br>

20 x 30 <-> 20.3 x 30<br>

30 x 45 <-> 30.5 x 44.5<br><br>

Carsten

ok. this is getting scary ;-) I might just upgrade to HP8750 and print them my self.