Units of paper quantity

The current word quire derives from Old English quair or guaer, from Old French quayer, cayer, (cf.

Later, when bookmaking switched to using paper and it became possible to easily stitch 5 to 7 sheets at a time, the association of quaire with four was quickly lost.

In the Middle Ages, a quire (also called a "gathering") was most often formed of four folded sheets of vellum or parchment, i.e. eight leaves or folios, 16 sides.

This last meaning is preserved in the modern Italian term for quire, quinterno di carta.

[12][Note 1] It also became the name for any booklet small enough to be made from a single quire of paper.

Simon Winchester, in The Surgeon of Crowthorne, cites a specific number, defining quire as "a booklet eight pages thick."

Several European words for quire keep the meaning of "book of paper": German Papierbuch, Danish bog papir, Dutch bock papier.

However, the commercial use of the word 'ream' for quantities of paper other than 500 is now deprecated by such standards as ISO 4046.

[2] The word 'ream' derives from Old French reyme, from Spanish resma, from Arabic rizmah 'bundle' (of paper), from rasama, 'collect into a bundle', reflecting the Moors having brought the manufacture of cotton paper to Spain.

The number of sheets in a ream has varied locally over the centuries, often according to the size and type of paper being sold.

[17] J. S. Bach's manuscript paper at Weimar was ordered by the ream of 480 sheets.