Units of paper quantity 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 a measure of paper quantity. The usual meaning is 25 sheets of the same size and quality: of a ream of 500 sheets. Quires of 25 sheets are often used for machine-made paper, while quires of 24 sheets are often used for handmade or specialised paper of 480-sheet reams. (As an old UK
Units of paper quantity the good quires ("insides"). These outside quires were known as "cassie quires" (from Fr. "cassée", "broken"), or "cording quires" and had only 20 sheets to the quire. The printer William Caslon in a book published in 1770 mentions both 24- and 25-sheet quires; he also details printer's wastage, and the sorting and recycling of damaged "cassie" quires. An 1826 French manual on typography complained that cording quires (usually containing some salvageable paper) from the Netherlands barely contained a single good sheet. It also became the name for any booklet small enough to be made from a single quire of paper.