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Manual Size 3 years 6 months ago #61830

What is the correct size for a Tamiya manual? When I have printed my own copies, I always assumed that they used folded A3 paper. However, A3 paper is 297x420mm, and now that I look closely I see that this is not the size of Tamiya manuals. Height seems constant at 300mm while width varies from 406-408mm. I can't find any evidence of a Japanese paper format using this size. This whole thing came up because I just built a Sand Rover (58500) and the manual is much bigger than normal: 330*450mm. Doesn't fit in my file cabinet. Anyone know why?

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Manual Size 3 years 6 months ago #61832

I have a few genuine vintage & new manuals, I can't be bothered to measure them as they all fit in an A4 punched pocket, apart from the "re-release" Sand Rover & Holiday Buggy.

:)
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Manual Size 3 years 6 months ago #61841

This is very coincidental, I have wanted to post a topic on this and figure it out for the past week as well...
Can confirm an official standard size that fits the average manual is nowhere to be found (in any system I came across).

Measuring myself, most seem to be 205mm wide.

Edit - a couple of manuals are even half the size, closer to A5, but let's not include those in the conversation (oops)...

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Last edit: by Edou.

Manual Size 3 years 6 months ago #61847

I have a few genuine vintage & new manuals, I can't be bothered to measure them as they all fit in an A4 punched pocket, apart from the "re-release" Sand Rover & Holiday Buggy.

Thanks. So it sounds like the re-re Sand Rover and Holiday buggies are known oddities for some reason?

The topic is actually important for printing manuals. If you buy an old kit without a manual and want to print your own, the scale needs to be correct if the 1:1 images of screw and link lengths are going to be right. A3 is really close, but apparently not quite right. I could understand if Tamiya prints them in bulk and then trims the edges, but then you'd expect both the lengths to be low. The height is actually too high. Weird.

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Last edit: by blakbird.

Manual Size 3 years 6 months ago #61848

It doesn't really matter for any of the pages other than the front cover though. Having edited around 500 800 pages over the past months I can confirm that. You don't have to resize the image, the content of the regular pages always fits on A4 with the manuals I have come across (quite a few).

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Last edit: by Edou.

Manual Size 3 years 6 months ago #61849

To add, for the front page there is a dilemma because it can never fully fit properly...

1) Fit the entire page which will leave empty space on the sides of A4 (resize to height, keep aspect ratio).
2) Resize to width, which will make the page a bit too long so top and bottom edges will be cropped.
3) Resize to A4 size without keeping aspect ratio, which will distort the image but seems to be the only option in some cases.

Option 1 is not my personal preference.

Edit - I suppose option 1 has sub options but I never explored those. If I may include one tip... scanning the cover upside down is usually not much of a loss in image when your scanner is limited to 297mm. Most of them are a single colour at the top.

When a paper virus suddenly destroys all physical manuals in 300 years, these files will hopefully still exist somewhere.

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Last edit: by Edou.

Manual Size 3 years 6 months ago #61850

All the manuals I scanned were a little bigger than A4 and the scanner. Maybe they are american size paper.

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Manual Size 3 years 6 months ago #61852

All the manuals I scanned were a little bigger than A4 and the scanner. Maybe they are american size paper.

I thought about that, but they are even further from American size (8.5x11") than A4. The mystery continues.

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Manual Size 3 years 6 months ago #61886

We know about JIS screw sizes, so, not supprisingly, there is a JIS standard for paper sizes as well.

Maybe some of these match the various manual sizes?

www.papersizes....-sizes.htm
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Manual Size 3 years 6 months ago #61887

Remember that pamphlets folded like the manuals must be cut after folding to make the edges "square" so we will probably not find a exact matching size.
If you look at some PDFs made for printing, they are marked with outer edges and cut lines, and hence printed on paper sizes even a couple of cm bigger than the finished product.
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