4 ms·

Almost no books are published in A4 format, even in Europe. I think that has a reason.

• mkl 3y ago
  No one mentioned books, but standard paperback book sizes are actually even more elongated than A4 (but smaller). A4 is used a lot in academia for papers, theses, lecture notes, etc., and that's mainly what I've read in that size.
  • red_trumpet 3y ago
    It's not about the aspect ratio, but the total line length measured in characters. If you pay attention you will realize that most published papers either have two columns or large margins, like the standard LaTeX article layout.
    • mkl 3y ago
      Do you really think I've read thousands of pages without paying attention? There is a lot of material in a single column without overly-wide margins. This subthread is about aspect ratio. dfadsadsf claimed "A4 proportions are objectively not great for reading (too elongated)".