Rema, according to its etymological origin, is located in the Arabic rizmah, which translates as "package". In the printing press, pack or pack of sheets of paper; Formally composed of 20 hands of 24 sheets each, it has been standardized in five hundred sheets.
In ancient times, leaves were counted by hand. The sheets that were cut from a roll were separated into five-sheet booklets. Every five brochures, in turn, created a hand. We can say, then, that a hand on paper consisted of twenty-five sheets (five for each of the five brochures).
By grouping twenty hands together, finally a ream was formed. If each hand had twenty-five sheets, a ream of twenty sheets of paper had 500 sheets. That is why today the reams that can be bought in stores include this number of sheets.
This 500 sheet ream (20 quires of 25 sheets) is also known as a 'long' ream, and is gradually replacing the old 480 sheet value, now known as a 'short' ream. Reams of 472 sheets and 516 are still present, but in retail stores paper is typically sold in reams of 500. As a former unit of the UK and the US. UU., A ream perfect was equal to 516 sheets.
Certain types of specialty papers such as tissue paper, grease resistant paper, paper made by hand and blotters still sell (especially in the UK) in reams "short" of 480 sheets (20 quires of 24 leaves). However, the commercial use of the word "ream" for amounts of paper other than 500 is now deprecated due to standards such as ISO 4046. In Europe, the DIN 6730 standard for paper and board includes a definition of 1 ream of paper of 80 g / m2 A4 equal to 500 sheets.
The number of sheets in a ream has varied locally over the centuries, often in accordance with the size and type of paper being sold. 500-sheet reams (20 quires of 25 sheets) were known in England in 1594; in 1706 a ream was defined as 20 hands, either 24 or 25 sheets for the hand. In Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, the size of the ream varied widely. In Lombardy, a ream of musical paper was 450 or 480 sheets; in Great Britain, Holland, and Germany, a 480-sheet ream was common; in Veneto 500 was more frequent. Some paper manufacturers counted 546 sheets (21 keels of 26 sheets).
