[pdftex] pdflatex and default a4 paper size

[David Romano]

Please let me know if this isn't the appropriate forum for this question: 
I've been using pdflatex from within AUCTeX and it seems the pdf output 
is "tagged" (I don't know the real term for this) as being intended for a4 
size paper -- no matter what printing utility I've used (pdf2ps, xpdf), 
the printer asks for a4 paper.  Is this something which is controlled by 
some kind of configuration file, or would it be necessary for me to 
include size specification commands in my latex source file?

Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
David Romano