Letter (paper size) Totally Explained

Everything about Letter Paper Size totally explained

The paper size Letter is the most common paper size for office use in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Chile, and a few other countries. (The most commonly used paper size outside North America is the international standard A4 sized paper.)
   Letter size is 8½ × 11 inches, or exactly 215.9 × 279.4 mm (while the A4 standard is 210mm × 297mm). In the Philippines, this paper size is commonly known as "Short" or "Short bond paper."
Ronald Reagan made this the paper size for U.S. federal forms; previously, the smaller "official" size (8 x 10½ inches) was used.
   People may often see paper described as 20 pound or 24 pound — the weight of 500 sheets of 17" x 22" paper, which the paper manufacturer will then cut into 4 letter-sized reams. Therefore, 1 ream of 20 pound letter-sized paper weighs 5 pounds and a single letter-sized sheet of 20-pound paper weighs 0.16 ounces or 4.54 grams.
   The origin of the exact dimensions of "letter" size paper (8½ in × 11 in, 215.9 mm × 279.4 mm) are lost in tradition and not well documented. The American Forest and Paper Association argues that the dimension originates from the days of manual paper making, and that the 11 inch length of the page is about a quarter of "the average maximum stretch of an experienced vatman's arms." However, this doesn't explain the width or aspect ratio.

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