Chris Hills wrote:

Only in the USA. out side the US it is IMPOSSIBLE to get. However A4 is
available EVERYWHERE in the world including in the USA. Because it is
the world wide standard most printers in tjhe US can get it and most
large stationers can also get it.

Not impossible, there are a very few places that stock it, at a price,
mainly seems to be used by people submitting film scripts
(apppropriately for this group). I have a couple of reams of Letter,
and one of Legal for odd things that won't fit on A4; I brought it back
with me from Staples near Pavonia Newport HBLR station in NJ. I need a
few three-ring binders for documentation supplied in that format, but I
can't find them anywhere over here. Our two-hole at 8 cm centres
system is bad, and allows the pages to move about too much, tearing the
holes; I always use four-hole ones.

Our 'office' apers used to be Quarto, which was 10"x8", and Foolscap,
which was 8"x13", though both names were also used for different sizes
of other types of papers. There was also briefly a 'Metric Quarto',
which was 10"x8.25". Just to confuse things even more there was
'American Quarto', which to the best of my knowledge was never used in
America, but was 10"x8.5"; English Quarto length and American Letter
width. Thee different 'Quartos for the same types of papers; utter
nonsense. These sizes went out of use in most offices over thirty
years ago. Where my mother worked in 1970 they were in the process of
changing over, and about 75% of work was on A4 or A5. The old sizes
remained available for many years, but were little used.

Computer printers and copy machinces no longer care, the feed trays
are "universal".

And therefore need moving parts that make them more expensive, work
loose, get set to the wrong position so the paper goes in on the skew
and jams etc. I'm always adjusting side guides on paper trays that
have moved out too wide for A4.

So what. The universal paper sizes are the ISO A series. There will
come a time when printer manufacturers won't bother with catering for
the no-standard US sizes. Parts of the US use the A series anyway.

The US is probably a big enough market that they will continue to
support them for as long as the US chooses to use them. I just wish
the US would do themselves, as well as everybody else, a favour, and
use what are to everybody else the standard sizes.

I did see some soft drinks in America sold in metric size bottles, with
a conversion to an odd number of quarts or whatever. Having drunk them
you might find yourself in need of a urinal made by American Standard.
They are a bit odd, they're marked '3.8 lpf/1gpf' or something very
similar, with the metric first, but the gallon as the round number.
Another reason to do away with gallons; which type are you talking
about, American ones or Imperial ones? I haven't used them for some
time, but to me a gallon was about 4.5 litres.