Grammage ream developed because such a size can easily be cut into sixteen 6 by book sized sheets without significant waste. Early newsprint presses printed sheets in size, and so the ream dimensions for newsprint became , with 500 sheets to a ream. Newsprint was made from ground wood pulp, and ground wood hanging paper (wallpaper) was made on newsprint machines. Newsprint was used as wrapping paper, and the first paper bags were made from newsprint. The newsprint ream standard also became the standard for packaging papers, even though in packaging papers kraft pulp rather than ground wood was used for
Units of paper quantity × 17" and smaller is packaged and sold as bundles of 25 pounds. A paper bale is a quantity of sheets of paper, currently standardized as 5,000 sheets. A bale consists of 5 bundles, 10 reams or 200 quires. As an old UK and US measure, it was previously equal to 4800 sheets. Units of paper quantity Various measures of paper quantity have been and are in use. Although there are no S.I. units such as quires and bales, there are ISO and DIN standards for the ream. Expressions used here include U.S. Customary units. A quire of paper is