Localization and switch to A4 paper

[Bodvar Bjorgvinsson]

One size fits all almost never goes. but if you are trying to make a
template that will fit both Letter and A4 paæer sizes, you should bear
in mind to fit to the shortest of both sides, long and wide. A4 is
21x29.7 cm (210x297mm) and letter size is 21.6x27.9mm (216x279mm).
Convert that into inches by dividing by 2.54.
Accordingly your imaginary paper size will be 210x279mm. The margins
depend on how the paper will be finalized. Will it be punched. If so,
how deep. The DIN A4 standard for punching is 5mm dia holes (v/s 6-9
mm in the US standards), but the depth is usually more in the DIN (or
European) standard.

Based on that, allow for 20-25mm (somewhat less than an inch) for the
left or near binding border and 15-20mm for the far side border (right
on the right side). That means the printing area width would be some
175-185mm.
The US standard seems to allow for a more narrow border for top and
bottom than the European, so for the printable area use the European
(based on A4 widht) for the widht and the US heitght (based on Letter
size) for the height, which would mean printing area height approx.
257mm (give or take a few mm). Best to make some test on the real
sizes.

I am working with both sizes all the time and try to go for each
standard on each paper format, but I usually don't have to consider
both for the same job. If so, I would use the approach described
above.

Otherwize, most printers can "convert" to the other size, but only by
shrinking the contents to some 94%. If you follow the above
description, or at least do not expand the printing area, your
customers should be able to get fair printing results printing in 100%
size.

Keeping a double set of templates would be more classy, though. :-)

Anyway, you are probably right, the issue has not been discussed in
any detail before, at least not for the last four years.


HTH,

Bodvar Bjorgvinsson
Air Atlanta Icelandic,
"The Airline for the Airlines"
http://www.airatlanta.com.

On 6/23/06, Melanie Raney <raney at earthdecision.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
> My group is in the process of figuring out what is involved in
> translating our docs into other languages. We have a translation vendor
> and are well on our way to starting our first prototypes. Our first
> issue is that we want to have some of the versions on A4 PDF/paper size,
> but we have no idea what is involved. Our FM templates are set up for
> 8.5x11. We are wondering if we need to make a duplicate set of FM
> templates--and we *really* don't want to do that.
> Anyone done this before?
> Apologies if this has been answered previously. I looked through the
> archive, but didn't find anything.
> Thanks much for any advice!
> --
> Melanie Raney
> Senior Information Developer
> Earth Decision Sciences
> phone | 713 787 0746 x113
> email | raney at earthdecision.com
> _______________________________________________
>
>
> You are currently subscribed to Framers as bodvar at gmail.com.
>
> Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com.
>
> To unsubscribe send a blank email to
> framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com
> or visit http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/bodvar%40gmail.com
>
> Send administrative questions to lisa at frameusers.com. Visit
> http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
>