--- name: "papersize" section: "5" platform: "linux" package: "libpaper1" version: "1.1.29" release: "Debian 12 (Bookworm)" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/papersize" --- # papersize(5) specify preferred paper size ## NAME **papersize** - specify preferred paper size ## SYNOPSYS **/etc/papersize** ## DESCRIPTION The **papersize** file is used to specify the preferred paper size to use by available commands and programs generating documents. The format of this file is extremely simple: whitespace and anything starting with \`#' is ignored, and the name of the paper is the first string found; the case in the name of the paper does not import (see **CAVEATS** section however). ## PAPER NAMES The following names are commonly understood by programs: **a3**, **a4**, **a5**, **b5**, **letter**, **legal**, **executive**, **note** and **11x17**. Additional paper names that one may encounter are: **a0**, **a1**, **a2**, **a6**, **a7**, **a8**, **a9**, **a10**, **b0**, **b1**, **b2**, **b3**, **b4**, **tabloid**, **statement**, **note**, **halfletter**, **halfexecutive**, **folio**, **quarto**, **ledger**, **archA**, **archB**, **archC**, **archD**, **archE**, **flsa**, **flse**, **csheet**, **dsheet**, **esheet** and **10x14**. The value of the **papersize** file can be overridden by looking in order at the **PAPERSIZE** environment variable, then at the contents of the file specified by the **PAPERCONF** environment variable. If the **papersize** file does not exist, programs using the paper library default to using **letter** as a fall-back value ## CAVEATS This manual page documents the format of the **papersize** file that is read by the **libpaper** library. Some programs that read this file do not yet use the library and may have trouble ignoring whitespace and comments in the file; they may also require that the paper names use a specific capitalization. ## DOCUMENTATION Yves Arrouye \ ## SEE ALSO [**paperconf**(1)](/paperconf/1.md)\ [**paperconfig**(8)](/paperconfig/8.md)