Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size

Re:Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size by dbelford on Monday September 05, 2022 @12:15PM (#32725981)

Are there fields (architects, engineers?) that take advantage of the the technical pen scaling? Or scanning software that is aware of the pen/paper ratios? This seems like a great way to have some consistency in analog/digital conversions. It would be nice to have 10 years of digitized notes that all have consistent sizing after scanning.

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Re:Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size by Symbiote on Monday September 05, 2022 @02:00PM (#32727173)

Architects and engineers certainly used to. Most engineering drawings are printed now, but presumably occasional modifications are still made by hand.

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Re:Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size by dbelford on Monday September 05, 2022 @06:36PM (#32730317)

In another comment you mentioned easy scaling in a photocopier. And cylinder714 linked to a description of iso-paper that mentions an ISO (ISO 9175-1) for pens.

Is there a term or place to search for pens sets that scale with A*/B* paper? Using the ISO or "technical pen" doesn't return obvious matches (from my US based search at least).

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Re:Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size by Symbiote on Tuesday September 06, 2022 @04:49AM (#32734575)

I searched "ISO drafting pens" and had several results, although none from the US or Canada. Wikipedia lists some manufacturers, and here are some online shops from my first couple of pages of results.

I've never used the steel nibbed pens. My grandfather was a draughtsman, and had a complete set, but as I understood it (age 10-ish) they were delicate and needed to be used carefully. I wouldn't buy a complete set on a whim :-)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_pen

https://www.rotring.com/pens-pencils/technical-pens/isograph...

https://www.staedtler.com/intl/en/products/technical-drawing...

https://draftex.com.au/collection/pens-markers-inks/technica...

https://www.faber-castell.eu/products/TechnicalDrawingPenTG1...

(There were also Indian websites, so I'll bet there's China/Aliexpress too.)

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Re:Why A4? – The Mathematical Beauty of Paper Size by dbelford on Tuesday September 06, 2022 @03:55PM (#32742407)

Wonderful, ISO-128 is exactly it and the wiki explains it perfectly. This seems like a fantastic sizing for pen sets.

The 0.10, 0.13, 0.18, 0.25, 0.35, 0.50, 0.70, 1.0, 1.4, and 2.0 scale with √2. I couldn't tell if other sets were just rounding or dropping the hundredths place. The rotring and staedtler both offer sets in those increments. I suppose this is just common knowledge to those who need it.

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