Paper Sizes Widget

Can you do without paper sheets? I can’t.

Generally I have a rough idea of ISO/DIN A paper sizes, but when it comes to exact dimensions or sheet sizes of more exotic standards even I need a little help. Although books and encyclopedias are all very well for some things, the vast world wide web for others, I needed a more direct and intuitive way to quickly find those precious bits of information. What is better for this purpose than a widget right on your Mac’s dashboard?

I started this project in 2011 and have since improved the interface and expanded the tool's content: so far almost 20 groups – from ISO/DIN over US and Japanese sizs to Traditional Inch and Traditional Europe – can be browsed and searched for numerous current as well as historical sheet sizes.

Tempores mutabantur

A little update from 2023 – with the renaissance of widgets in Apple's more recent ecosystem it is worth mentioning that OS X widgets neither had the same purpose than their modern counterparts nor do they share the same technical background. Still a mayor similarity justifies their appearance under the same name: utmost simplicity – in terms of use scenario and interface.

The approach – e.g. to present this functionality as an OS X widget – was sound in 2011 and remained appropriate for a decade at least. With the Dashboard application removed from macOS (Catalina, 10.15) in 2019, however, all OS X widgets' end of life finally was upon us. Since many OS X widgets – like this one – luckily were web applications at their cores they easily can be released to their natural habitat today: the web. Some minor adjustments and Bob's your uncle. I hope you find this tool useful (again).

Open PaperSizes (Web Version)

The original widget also is available for download at the end of this article.

What’s in the box?

Currently nineteen categories are included:

• ISO/DIN/JIS A (Standard printing and stationery)
• ISO/DIN B (Posters, wall-charts)
• ISO/DIN C (Folders, post cards and envelopes)
• ISO/DIN D (Boxes and cases)
• ISO RA (Raw format A)
• ISO SRA (Supplementary raw format A)
• JIS B/JB (Japanese B)
• Japanese Cut (Japanese paper sizes)
• Japanese Uncut (Japanese sheet sizes)
• Shiroku-ban (Traditional Japanese paper sizes)
• Kiku-ban (Traditional Japanese paper sizes)
• Kai (开 kāi, Common Chinese paper sizes)
• US Engineering (US Engineering Drawing Sizes)
• US Architecture (US Architectural Drawing Sizes)
• US Metric Book (US metric book sizes)
• US Misc. (United States, Canada and Mexico)
• Newspaper (Newspaper formats)
• Traditional Europe (Traditional European sizes)
• Traditional Inch (Traditional inch-based paper sizes)

Get Your Own Copy

Feel free to download my original widget:

PaperSizes.wdgt.zip380 KiB

(Use at your own risk. Errors and omissions excepted.)