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Joanne Gardner tracks down the solutions to your technical troubles

Q I have some A4 ream packed paper and the size is up to 2mm longer or shorter than the 210x297 standard A4 size. Can you tell me what the standard ISO mill-packing tolerance of A4 mill-cut and packed paper is – and is plus or minus 2mm outside that standard?
Alan Lee, London South Bank University

A The ISO paper size complies with the standard size you mentioned, 210x297mm. All ISO paper sizes are based on the height-to-width ratio being the square root of two (1.4142:1). In other words, the width and the height of a page relate to each other like the side and the diagonal of a square. The accepted tolerances are plus or minus 1.5mm for dimensions up to 150mm, plus or minus 2mm for dimensions from 150mm up to 600mm, and plus or minus 3mm for dimensions above 600mm. Some national equivalents of ISO 216 specify tighter tolerances – DIN 476 requires plus or minus 1mm, plus or minus 1.5mm and plus or minus 2mm respectively for the same ranges of dimensions. In a nutshell, according to DIN 476 your 2mm difference is unacceptable, but it is tolerated according to the general ISO standard. I hope that is helpful.

Welsh printers #2
Judith Morgan of Carrick has kindly answered the question I cleverly wrote in Welsh, informing me that ‘argraffu’ is Welsh for print. She has also offered her company’s services to Derek McDonald, who was looking for a Welsh firm to print a small run of brochures. Call 01443 843 520 or visit www.carrickdesignprint.co.uk.

Watermarking #2
Adrian Steele of Mercian Labels should add another couple of companies to the list of those that I suggested in response to his question on watermarking facilities. Intelligent Papers can do the real deal – using a traditional dandy roll – the only downside being a minimum order of one tonne. However, it also offers a new system, Printmark, which is an ink-based rather than chemical-based process developed by IPL. The process creates a watermark effect and, importantly, there is a minimum order of only one sheet. For more information call Paul on 01273 483760 or email paul@intelligentpapers.co.uk. I also received an email from Matthew Orchin, owner of Sherlock Printing, which also runs a print-based watermarking service. You can reach him on 01444 253650 or email sherlockprinting@btconnect.com.