Lots of details about metric paper sizes

A4 paper vs. letter paper

TWO places where paper size matters

In most LaTeX classes (article, book, report) you can explicitly specify the kind of paper size to use, a4paper or letterpaper, e.g.,

	\documentclass[twoside,letterpaper]{article}
	\documentclass[a4paper,11pt]{report}

C.U.'s thesis class uses letterpaper by default, but otherwise the default paper size is determined in some configuration file (texinfo.tex?) somewhere in the TeX directory.
However, if/when you convert a DVI file to PostScript (or PDF) there is again a choice of paper sizes. The conversion program (dvips) doesn't know or care about the paper size specified in the original LaTeX file, but will assume its own default paper size unless told otherwise.
So check on both of the following.

(1) In your LaTeX source file

At the top of your main LaTeX source file you can specify the desired paper size explicitly in the \documentclass command, e.g.,

		\documentclass[twoside,letterpaper]{article}
		\documentclass[twoside,a4paper]{article}
		\documentclass[letterpaper,11pt]{report}
		\documentclass[a4paper,11pt]{report}

This is redundant for the C.U. Boulder thesis class, because letterpaper is indicated in the thesis.cls file and a4paper is disallowed.

You may additionally fiddle with the default margins for the indicated class and paper size (with the exception of thesis class!) by redefining length variables like \textwidth, \textheight, \topmargin, \oddsidemargin, etc.

(2) In the conversion from DVI to PostScript

The LaTeX software on Unix computers (and others) produces a DVI file which must be converted to PostScript with a dvips conversion command, either explicitly or automatically. It is here that assumed margins or papersize may again need to be adjusted.

With the explicit Unix command you can specify a paper size with the -t option, e.g.,

	unix>  dvips -t letter mydoc.dvi -o mydoc.ps
	unix>  dvips -t a4 eurodoc.dvi -o eurodoc.ps
	unix>  dvips -t legal lawdoc.dvi -o lawdoc.ps

With some LaTeX installations with a GUI (like MikTeX or TeXShop) you can either find some menu item that lets you specify a dvips paper size, or use a text editor to edit the configuration file appropriately. For MikTeX, edit (WinEdt) and save the file C:\MiKTeX\dvips\config\config.ps, moving the lines about letter and letterSize before the lines about a4 if you want letterpaper to be the default size.