[tex-live] papersizes: in the document or as system-wide setting?

[George N. White III]

On Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 1:29 PM, Reinhard Kotucha
<reinhard.kotucha at web.de> wrote:

> Frank Küster writes:
>  > Reinhard Kotucha <reinhard.kotucha at web.de> wrote:
>  >
>  > > In short, my personal opinion is to leave things as they are now.
>  > > What I absolutely don't want to do is to provide new features which
>  > > have to be dropped next year.
>  >
>  > It would make my life easier if we could kind of agree which paper sizes
>  > make sense as a default paper size. A4 and letter for sure. If an
>  > installation is exclusively used to print leaflets or envelopes, the
>  > local admin might want this - but on the other hand, he'll have to
>  > provide a corresponding style file for the typesetting size anyway, so
>  > that one could as well include geometry.sty.
>
> Yes, that's true.
>
>  > Are there any printers around that support different standard sizes than
>  > A4 and letter - maybe something used in far-eastern countries?
>
> teTeX and TeX Live had only A4 as a default in the past and only the
> Americans asked for letter.  See also:
>
>  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_size
>
>  > Or do lawyers print on "legal paper"?
>
> No, only the Debian people are always worried about legal stuff. :)

A4 and letter should suffice as alternatives for a default paper size.

Anyone setting up a system dedicated to some odd size should
expect to spend a little extra time figuring out how to set the right
size.   I've encountered this just twice, the first time was for camera-
ready copy on an early 1200x600 dpi laser printer using paper with
the photo area (A4, letter, etc) marked by a blue rectangle and quite
generous margins.   The second time was a Kodak dye-sub printer
that used paper with 2/3 ratio (e.g., 8x12) like 35mm film.   I can
assure you that both printers required lots of attention, but the
odd  paper sizes were never a big issue.


-- 
George N. White III <aa056 at chebucto.ns.ca>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia