A5

A5 is a paper size that is often used for notepads or pocket books.

Dimensions

A5 measures 148 × 210 millimeters or 5.83 × 8.27 inches. In PostScript, its dimensions are rounded off to 420 × 595 points.

Part of the ISO 216 standard

A5 is part of a set or range of page sizes, called the ISO A or ISO 216 standard. This international standard is based on the German DIN 476 standard from 1922. A5 is actually often referred to as DIN A5. The Japanese have adopted the same range of paper sizes in their JIS P 0138-61 standard.

By folding an A5 in two along the shortest side, you create an A6 document. Two A5 pages next to each other in a spread equals the A4 paper size. This way a range of paper sizes are created from A0 (which has a surface of one square meter) to A10. The height/width ratio remains constant (1:1.41 or the square root of 2) for all sizes. The dimensions always get rounded to the nearest millimeter.

Resolution needed to print an A5 size picture

To output an image properly it needs to have a certain minimum resolution. The number of pixels depends on the required output quality.

• At 300 ppi (pixels per inch) the image needs to be 1748 x 2480 pixels. This is the required resolution for quality offset printing that will be viewed from a short distance (such as books, brochures, magazines, calendars,…). For photo books, it is also the optimum resolution but a somewhat lower pixel count (250 dpi) is acceptable for great-looking photographs.
• At 150 ppi the image needs to be 874 x 1240 pixels. This is the minimum resolution for newspapers or posters viewed from a fairly short distance.

A digital camera with decent image quality and a resolution of 4 megapixel or more can be used to print high-quality A5 size pictures.

Alternatives

None added yet.

Other sources of information

An elaborate yet easy to read page on the ISO 216 standard can be found here.