[XeTeX] Page is "stuck" in A4 type

[Herbert Schulz]

On Jan 27, 2010, at 4:58 PM, Fr. Michael Gilmary wrote:

> Herbert Schulz wrote:
> 
>> AFAIK LaTeX, which is a large package of macros that sits ``on top' of (pdf/xe)tex always assumes letterpaper by default so you should use the a4paper option when using a4 paper but letterpaper is optional. 
> 
> 
> I get Maxim's file to work fine with just: \documentclass[letterpaper,10pt]{article} --- but even without it, the system here is set to letterpaper. So either way it works.
> 
> Do different mirror locations for downloading TeXLive have different default settings for paper size (a4paper for Europe, letterpaper for US)?
> 

Howdy,

I doubt that it is geographically determined. It is probably letterpaper by default and settable on install with the TeX Live installer. The MacTeX installer checks to see what your system default is and sets the default appropriately. I'm not sure what happens with MikTeX on Windows.

You can use tlmgr (or TeX Live Utility on the Mac with OS X 10.5 and later) to set the default paper size.

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs at wideopenwest dot com)