RFC 2346
Making Postscript and PDF International
Making Postscript and PDF International ✨
RFC 2346 🎀 from the Network Working Group, written by Jacob Palme of Stockholm University/KTH. It's Informational (so it's advice, not a standard 💅) and dated May 1998. The title block doesn't list anything it obsoletes or updates.
Status of This Memo
This memo gives info to the Internet community. It's not an Internet standard of any kind 🧚 Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998). All Rights Reserved. ✨
Abstract
Okay, so some text formats, like Postscript (MIME-Type: application/postscript; file extension .ps) and Portable Document Format (MIME-Type: application/pdf; file extension .pdf), lock in the exact page layout of a printed document 📄 The paper size people use is different in North America and the rest of the world. North America uses 'Letter', while most of the world uses the ISO-standard 'A4'. So a document formatted on one continent might not print nicely on another one 😭 This memo gives advice on making documents that print well on both Letter and A4 paper. If you follow it, you can put a document on the Internet that people can print without trouble, both in and outside North America 🌈
Quick summary, because I know you're busy: if you're using U.S. Letter paper, make sure both the left and right margins are at least 21 mm (0.8 in). If you're using A4 paper, make sure both the top and bottom margins are at least 33 mm (1.3 in) 💖
Table of Contents
1. Introduction 2
2. Two methods for printing on different paper formats 2
2.1 Method 1: Use wider margins 2
2.2 Method 2: Print with reduced size 3
2.3 Method 3: Buy paper in the A4 size 4
3. Acknowledgements 4
4. Security Considerations 4
5. References 4
6. Author's Address 5
7. Full Copyright Statement 61. Introduction ✨
Okay, so this is the same vibe as the abstract. Postscript (MIME-Type: application/postscript; file extension .ps) and Portable Document Format (MIME-Type: application/pdf; file extension .pdf) fix the exact page layout of the printed document 📄 The paper format people use is different in North America and the rest of the world. North America uses 'Letter', and the rest of the world uses 'A4' 🌸
Here's the math. The North American Letter format is 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 in), while the ISO standardised A4 format is 210 x 297 mm (8.3 x 11.7 in). So Letter is 6 mm (0.2 inches) wider, and A4 is 18 mm (0.7 inches) taller 🦋
So documents made on one continent might not print on another one. Documents on the Internet really should print everywhere, obviously 💅 This paper explains how to make that happen.
This memo isn't meant for HTML documents, but it might help HTML developers who use fixed-size graphics and fixed WIDTH sizes for objects in their HTML documents 🫶
2. Three methods for printing on different paper formats 🍓
2.1 Method 1: Use wider margins
Here's the margin cheat sheet. Look at the paper format you use when converting the document to Postscript or PDF, and the orientation, then compare with the suggested minimal margins 👑
Paper format
you use when
converting
the document Suggested minimal margins
to Postscript Paper
or PDF orien- Suggested change Left Right Top Bottom
tation of margins
------------ ----------- ----------------- ----- ----- ----- -----
A4 Portrait Add 18 mm (0.7 20 mm 20 mm 33 mm 33 mm
(upright, inches) to the top 0.8" 0.8" 1.3" 1.3"
vertical) of page and bottom
of page margins
A4 Landscape Add 18 mm (0.7 33 mm 33 mm 15 mm 15 mm
(lying, inches) to the 1.3" 1.3" 0.6" 0.6"
horizontal) left and right
margins
Letter Portrait Add 6 mm (0.2 20 mm 26 mm 15 mm 15 mm
(upright, inches) to the 0.8" 1.0" 0.6" 0.6"
vertical) right margins
Letter Landscape Add 6 mm (0.2 15 mm 15 mm 21 mm 21 mm
(lying, inches) to the top 0.6" 0.6" 0.8" 0.8"
horizontal) of page and bottom
of page marginsWhy do you have to add 18 mm (or 6 mm) to both the top and the bottom margin? Because you don't know what printer the recipient has, and different printers feed paper in different ways 🤷♀️ So the extra margin might need to go at the top or at the bottom. Also, left and right margins on any paper format should be at least 20 mm wide, so they fit ISO 838 hole punches for filing 🗂️
Note: Make sure headers, footers, and page numbers are inside the suggested minimal margins too 🙈 Lots of word processors put those outside the text margins, and that's a whole mess.
2.2 Method 2: Print with reduced size
This one is for the recipient who got a document with the wrong paper size 😤 The recipient sets the printer to print with reduced size. When the sender makes the PDF or Postscript files, the sender should print at 100 % size. But when the recipient prints those files, and the printing program lets them, the recipient should print at 94% or less of full size 💅
Lots of Postscript printing programs don't allow this. In that case, the recipient can convert the Postscript document to PDF and then print it with a PDF printing program 📄 That only works if the recipient has the Adobe Acrobat Distiller program, which is not freeware 💀 Recent versions of the freeware ghostscript can also convert to PDF. Also, the user may have to set the paper size to the actual paper loaded in the printer, not the paper size chosen when the document was converted to PDF or Postscript.
You can also edit the Postscript file and add a scale command to it before sending it to the printer 🧚
Method 2 can be harder for the recipient, since they have to manage these settings themselves 😭 But printing software makers might make it easier later, making this automatic, maybe with a 'shrink to fit paper size' checkbox in the printing window and a 'default shrink to fit paper size' preference setting 🔥
Overall, the authors of this RFC recommend PDF over Postscript as the preferred document format 👑 Here's why it's iconic:
- PDF printing programs typically have a 'shrink to fit' option that handles different paper sizes elegantly.
- PDF has built-in per page data compression.
- PDF files can be displayed without being fully downloaded.
- PDF is more portable.
- PDF has a better method of rendering fonts that aren't available in the printer.
- PDF allows you to embed URLs.
2.3 Method 3: Buy paper in the A4 size
People in North America who often print international documents might just buy A4 paper 📄 You can get it in the U.S. from many big paper distribution companies, and almost all laser printers support it 🌈
3. Acknowledgements 🫶
Markus Kuhn gave lots of helpful suggestions on this document. Thank you, Markus 💖
Adobe, Acrobat, Distiller, Exchange and Postscript are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated or its subsidiaries.
4. Security Considerations 🔐
Following the recommendations in this memo will increase the likelihood that a document is readable, and looks the same, to all recipients, which lowers the risk of misunderstanding ✨ The recommendation doesn't introduce any known new security risks by itself. Of course, there might be a risk that relying on these recommendations makes certain writers too sure that their documents will look the same 🙈
Postscript (TM) has well known security risks 💀 They're discussed in [MIME].
5. References 📚
- A4: Writing paper and certain classes of printed matter - Trimmed sizes - A and B series, International Standard ISO 216, International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, 1975.
- ANSI: Bond Papers and Index Bristols - Common Sheet Sizes, North American National Standard ANSI X3.151, North American National Standards Institute, 1987.
- ISO 838: Paper - Holes for general filing purposes - Specifications, International Standard ISO 838, International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, 1974.
- Kuhn: Markus Kuhn: International Standard Paper Sizes.
<URL:http://www.ft.uni-erlangen.de/~mskuhn/iso-paper.html>. - PDF: Tim Bienz, Richard Cohn, James R. Mechan: Portable Document Format Reference Manual, Version 1.2, Adobe Systems Incorporated,
<URL:http://www.adobe.com/supportservice/devrelations/PDFS/TN/PDFSPEC.PDF>. - MIME: Freed, N., and N. Borenstein, "Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) Part Two: Media Types", RFC 2046, November 1996.
6. Author's Address 🧚
Jacob Palme
Stockholm University and KTH
Electrum 230
S-164 40 Kista, Sweden
Phone: +46-8-16 16 67
Fax: +46-8-783 08 29
EMail: jpalme@dsv.su.se7. Full Copyright Statement 💜
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998). All Rights Reserved.
This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than English.
The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.
This document and the information contained herein is provided on an "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. 🦋
📦 where this page comes from
- ietf: rfc2346 1998-05
- 💖 girlified by claude-haiku-5-5 on : a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms