{"id":8497,"date":"2022-03-16T15:28:19","date_gmt":"2022-03-16T19:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cba-design.com\/united-states\/?p=8497"},"modified":"2024-01-26T11:39:51","modified_gmt":"2024-01-26T16:39:51","slug":"009-design-tools-on-different-pages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cba-design.com\/united-states\/news\/009-design-tools-on-different-pages\/","title":{"rendered":"009 Design Tools, On Different Pages"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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America vs. (Most of) the Rest of the World\n<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u201c<\/span>You like potato and I like potahto. You like tomato and I like tomahto\u2026\u201d In my head, the song<\/span>, <\/span>\u201cLet\u2019s call the whole thing off,\u201d<\/span> made famous by Ella Fitzgerald was stuck on repeat as I jetted off to the US of A for a new chapter in my life.<\/span><\/p>

I can\u2019t have been the first Brit to fall foul of this earworm.<\/span> I was mindful of the broad spectrum of differences between the UK and US, despite our sharing a common language<\/span>, <\/span>and I was keen to bridge the gap.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

I\u2019d done my homework and thought I was across our cultural, social and technical disparities, but one, in particular, came as a surprise. Read on to find out more.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Confusion at the Printer Tray<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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They may be <\/span>reluctant <\/span>to admit it, but there\u2019ll be plenty of Americans out there who\u2019ve blown up the occasional, home-grown, electrical appliance on a trip to Europe. For a nation that\u2019s built a reputation on doing things bigger and brasher, the USA has lagged behind in some key respects.<\/span><\/p>\n

It can, for example, only boast around half the standard voltage in its domestic electricity supply compared with its neighbors across the pond. <\/span><\/p>\n

Having 100 fewer lines, the pictures on its TV screens have for years lacked the crispness and clarity of their European counterparts.<\/span> Being across these and other divergences, I was cautiously optimistic of being already well on the way to fully-fledged American integration on my first day at CBA\u2019s New York office. <\/span><\/p>\n

Hold the front page.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhere do we keep the A4, mate?\u201d I asked as I gazed down at the empty office printer tray. <\/span>I was met with a puzzled look from one of my new American colleagues. <\/span>Here\u2019s why.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Papering Over the Cracks<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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It turns out that North America does not sing from the same hymn sheet as most of the world when it comes to paper sizes.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Mexico City, Ottawa and DC might buy their paper in \u201cletter,\u201d \u201clegal,\u201d \u201cexecutive\u201d and \u201cledger\/tabloid\u201d sizes. London, Paris and Rome most definitely do not. I embarked on a paper trail to find out why. Notepads at the ready.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

  1. Most of the world is on the same page and uses an international paper size standard, known as ISO 216. <\/span>The most commonly used paper in this series is A4. It\u2019s slightly taller and narrower than its stubbier American cousin, letter size.

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  2. ISO stands for the <\/span>International Organization for Standardization. Based in Geneva, it takes Swiss-style accuracy to the extreme. After World War 2, there was a desire to rebuild fast. The consensus was that developing and using standards shared by everyone would help, hence the foundation of the ISO in 1947.

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  3. The ISO is responsible for a whole raft of numbered genres, not just the one related to paper sizes. Here are some of its greatest hits:

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