A6

Catherine generously gave me a copy of Making Books, from the London Centre for Book Arts, for Christmas. Many handmade books are sure to follow.

I love that they have a project called A6 that accepts submissions of self-published “artist books, zines and publications,” with the only constraint being they must be A6-sized.

A6 is my favourite of the ISO paper sizes: I love my A6 notebooks and the pouches I carry them about in; I went as far as equipping myself with an A6-sized water bottle this fall.

Photo of A6 water bottle on top of A6 notebook

Making Books has a very clear diagram of how the ISO paper size system works:

Diagram of the ISO paper sizes from Making Books

Each size from A0 to A7, when folded in half, becomes the next size down: fold an A6 in half and you get an A7 signature. It’s brilliant, and it’s a shame that, when we converted to the metric system in Canada in the 1970s, we didn’t go all the way and adopt this sizing system as well (the province of Ontario tried, but ultimately gave in; when I was in grade 13 in high school the photocopiers were filled with A4 paper).

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