Various measures of paper quantity have been and are in use. Although there are no S.I. units such as quires or bales, there are ISO [1] and DIN [2] standards for the ream. Expressions used here include U.S. Customary Units.
A quire of paper is a measure of paper quantity. The usual meaning is 25 sheets of the same size and quality: 1⁄20 of a ream of 500 sheets. Quires of 25 sheets are often used for machine-made paper, while quires of 24 sheets are often used for handmade or specialised paper of 480-sheet reams. (As an old UK and US measure, in some sources, a quire was originally 24 sheets. [9] ) Quires of 15, 18 or 20 sheets have also been used, depending on the type of paper.
The current word quire derives from Old English quair or guaer, from Old French quayer, cayer, (cf. modern French cahier), from Latin quaternum, 'by fours', 'fourfold'. Later, when bookmaking switched to using paper and it became possible to easily stitch 5 to 7 sheets at a time, the association of quaire with four was quickly lost.
In the Middle Ages, a quire (also called a "gathering") was most often formed of four folded sheets of vellum or parchment, i.e. eight leaves or folios, 16 sides. The term quaternion (or sometimes quaternum) designates such a quire. A quire made of a single folded sheet (i.e. two leaves, four sides) is a bifolium (plural bifolia); a binion is a quire of two sheets (i.e. four leaves, 8 sides); and a quinion is five sheets (ten leaves, 20 sides). This last meaning is preserved in the modern Italian term for quire, quinterno di carta.
Formerly, when paper was packed at the paper mill, the top and bottom quires were made up of slightly damaged sheets ("outsides") to protect the good quires ("insides"). These outside quires were known as cassie quires (from French cassée, 'broken'), or "cording quires" and had only 20 sheets to the quire. [10] The printer Philip Luckombe in a book published in 1770 mentions both 24- and 25-sheet quires; he also details printer's wastage, and the sorting and recycling of damaged cassie quires. [11] An 1826 French manual on typography complained that cording quires (usually containing some salvageable paper) from the Netherlands barely contained a single good sheet. [12] [Note 1]
It also became the name for any booklet small enough to be made from a single quire of paper. Simon Winchester, in The Surgeon of Crowthorne , cites a specific number, defining quire as "a booklet eight pages thick." Several European words for quire keep the meaning of "book of paper": German Papierbuch, Danish bog papir, Dutch bock papier.
In blankbook binding, quire is a term indicating 80 pages.
A ream of paper is a quantity of sheets of the same size and quality. International standards organizations define the ream as 500 identical sheets. [1] [2] [Note 2] This ream of 500 sheets (20 quires of 25 sheets) is also known as a 'long' ream, and is gradually replacing the old value of 480 sheets, now known as a 'short' ream. Reams of 472 and 516 sheets are still current, [13] but in retail outlets paper is typically sold in reams of 500. As an old UK and US unit, a perfect ream was equal to 516 sheets. [9]
Certain types of specialist papers such as tissue paper, greaseproof paper, handmade paper, and blotting paper are still sold (especially in the UK) in 'short' reams of 480 sheets (20 quires of 24 sheets). However, the commercial use of the word 'ream' for quantities of paper other than 500 is now deprecated by such standards as ISO 4046. [1] In Europe, the DIN 6730 standard for Paper and Board includes a definition of 1 ream of A4 80 gsm (80 g/m2) paper equals 500 sheets. [2]
The word 'ream' derives from Old French reyme, from Spanish resma, from Arabic rizmah 'bundle' (of paper), from rasama, 'collect into a bundle'. (The Moors brought manufacture of cotton paper to Spain.) The early variant rym (late 15c.) suggests a Dutch influence. [14] (cf. Dutch riem), probably during the time of Spanish Habsburg control of the Netherlands.
The number of sheets in a ream has varied locally over the centuries, often according to the size and type of paper being sold. Reams of 500 sheets (20 quires of 25 sheets) were known in England in c. 1594; [15] in 1706 a ream was defined as 20 quires, either 24 or 25 sheets to the quire. [16] In 18th- and 19th-century Europe, the size of the ream varied widely. In Lombardy a ream of music paper was 450 or 480 sheets; in Britain, Holland and Germany a ream of 480 sheets was common; in the Veneto it was more frequently 500. Some paper manufacturers counted 546 sheets (21 quires of 26 sheets). [17] J. S. Bach's manuscript paper at Weimar was ordered by the ream of 480 sheets. [18] In 1840, a ream in Lisbon was 17 (25-sheet) quires and three sheets = 428 sheets, and a double ream was 18 (24-sheet) quires and two sheets = 434 sheets; and in Bremen, blotting or packing paper was sold in reams of 300 (20 quires of 15 sheets). [19] A mid-19th century Milanese-Italian dictionary has an example for a risma (ream) as being either 450 or 480 sheets. [20]
In the UK in 1914, paper was sold using the following reams: [21]
Reams of 500 sheets were mostly used only for newsprint. [21] Since the late 20th century, the 500-sheet ream has become the de facto international standard.
A paper bundle is a quantity of sheets of paper, currently standardized as 1,000 sheets. A bundle consists of two reams or 40 quires. As an old UK and US measure, it was previously equal to 960 sheets. [9]
When referring to chipboard, there are two standards in the US. In general, a package of approximately 50 pounds of chipboard is called a bundle. Thus, a bundle of 22 point chipboard (0.022" thick) 24" × 38", with each sheet weighing 0.556 pounds, contains 90 sheets. However, chipboard sold in size 11" × 17" and smaller is packaged and sold as bundles of 25 pounds.
A paper bale is a quantity of sheets of paper, currently standardized as 5,000 sheets. A bale consists of five bundles, ten reams or 200 quires. [22] As an old UK and US measure, it was previously equal to 4800 sheets. [9]
ISO 216 is an international standard for paper sizes, used around the world except in North America and parts of Latin America. The standard defines the "A", "B" and "C" series of paper sizes, which includes the A4, the most commonly available paper size worldwide. Two supplementary standards, ISO 217 and ISO 269, define related paper sizes; the ISO 269 "C" series is commonly listed alongside the A and B sizes.
An envelope is a common packaging item, usually made of thin, flat material. It is designed to contain a flat object, such as a letter or card.
Corrugated fiberboard, corrugated cardboard, or corrugated is a type of packaging material consisting of a fluted corrugated sheet and one or two flat linerboards. It is made on "flute lamination machines" or "corrugators" and is used for making corrugated boxes. The corrugated medium sheet and the linerboard(s) are made of kraft containerboard, a paperboard material usually over 0.25 millimetres (0.01 in) thick.
In science and engineering, the parts-per notation is a set of pseudo-units to describe small values of miscellaneous dimensionless quantities, e.g. mole fraction or mass fraction. Since these fractions are quantity-per-quantity measures, they are pure numbers with no associated units of measurement. Commonly used are parts-per-million, parts-per-billion, parts-per-trillion and parts-per-quadrillion. This notation is not part of the International System of Units (SI) system and its meaning is ambiguous.
Paper size standards govern the size of sheets of paper used as writing paper, stationery, cards, and for some printed documents.
Choir is an ensemble of singers.
Paperboard is a thick paper-based material. While there is no rigid differentiation between paper and paperboard, paperboard is generally thicker than paper and has certain superior attributes such as foldability and rigidity. According to ISO standards, paperboard is a paper with a grammage above 250 g/m2, but there are exceptions. Paperboard can be single- or multi-ply.
In typography, the point is the smallest unit of measure. It is used for measuring font size, leading, and other items on a printed page. The size of the point has varied throughout printing's history. Since the 18th century, the size of a point has been between 0.18 and 0.4 millimeters. Following the advent of desktop publishing in the 1980s and 1990s, digital printing has largely supplanted the letterpress printing and has established the desktop publishing (DTP) point as the de facto standard. The DTP point is defined as 1⁄72 of an inch (1/72 × 25.4 mm ≈ 0.353 mm) and, as with earlier American point sizes, is considered to be 1⁄12 of a pica.
A system of units of measurement, also known as a system of units or system of measurement, is a collection of units of measurement and rules relating them to each other. Systems of measurement have historically been important, regulated and defined for the purposes of science and commerce. Instances in use include the International System of Units or SI, the British imperial system, and the United States customary system.
Letter is a paper size standard defined in ANSI/ASME Y14.1 by the American National Standards Institute, commonly used as home or office stationery primarily in the United States, Canada, and the Philippines, and variably across Latin America. It measures 8.5 by 11 inches and is similar in use to the A4 paper standard at 210 mm × 297 mm used by most other countries, defined in ISO 216 by the International Organization for Standardization.
English units were the units of measurement used in England up to 1826, which evolved as a combination of the Anglo-Saxon and Roman systems of units. Various standards have applied to English units at different times, in different places, and for different applications.
Metrication in Canada began in 1970 and ceased in 1985. While Canada has converted to the metric system for many purposes, there is still significant use of non-metric units and standards in many sectors of the Canadian economy and everyday life. This is mainly due to historical ties with the United Kingdom, the traditional use of the imperial system of measurement in Canada, interdependent supply chains with the United States, and opposition to metrication during the transition period.
Metrication, is the act or process of converting to the metric system of measurement. The United Kingdom, through voluntary and mandated laws have metricated most of government, industry, commerce, and scientific research to the metric system, however the previous measurent system is still used in society. Imperial units as of 2024 still remain mandated by law to still be used without metric units for speed and distance road signs, and the sizes of cider and beer sold by the glass, returnable milk containers and precious metals.
The size of a book is generally measured by the height against the width of a leaf, or sometimes the height and width of its cover. A series of terms is commonly used by libraries and publishers for the general sizes of modern books, ranging from folio, to quarto (smaller) and octavo. Historically, these terms referred to the format of the book, a technical term used by printers and bibliographers to indicate the size of a leaf in terms of the size of the original sheet. For example, a quarto historically was a book printed on sheets of paper folded in half twice, with the first fold at right angles to the second, to produce 4 leaves, each leaf one fourth the size of the original sheet printed – note that a leaf refers to the single piece of paper, whereas a page is one side of a leaf. Because the actual format of many modern books cannot be determined from examination of the books, bibliographers may not use these terms in scholarly descriptions.
Grammage and basis weight, in the pulp and paper industry, are the area density of a paper product, that is, its mass per unit of area. Two ways of expressing grammage are commonly used:
Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS) are the standards used for industrial activities in Japan, coordinated by the Japanese Industrial Standards Committee (JISC) and published by the Japanese Standards Association (JSA). The JISC is composed of many nationwide committees and plays a vital role in standardizing activities across Japan.
Textile fibers, threads, yarns and fabrics are measured in a multiplicity of units.
Card stock, also called cover stock and pasteboard, is paper that is thicker and more durable than normal writing and printing paper, but thinner and more flexible than other forms of paperboard.
ISO/IEC 19752Information technology — Method for the determination of toner cartridge yield for monochromatic electrophotographic printers and multi-function devices that contain printer components is an ISO/IEC standard method for the determination of toner cartridge yield for monochrome laser printers, introduced in June 2004 and updated in 2017.
Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses, or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through a fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distributed on the surface, followed by pressing and drying. Although paper was originally made in single sheets by hand, almost all is now made on large machines—some making reels 10 metres wide, running at 2,000 metres per minute and up to 600,000 tonnes a year. It is a versatile material with many uses, including printing, painting, graphics, signage, design, packaging, decorating, writing, and cleaning. It may also be used as filter paper, wallpaper, book endpaper, conservation paper, laminated worktops, toilet tissue, currency, and security paper, or in a number of industrial and construction processes.
reams of cover and index paper are more likely to consist of 250 sheets than 500
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