And..we got our measures from the Brits, I believe! Metric has been slow to cacth on in the USA except in industry where the scale is standard. When I work jewelry, all is in metric measure and weights vary from gram to dwt. In paper I think of 8 1/2 x 11 inches which is not quite A4 either way at 216x279mm. This is a standard document size here. Standardization is good but old habits are hard to break. : ) No problem...conversion is easy enough.