geometry doesn't create huge document

Question

I am using geometry with memoir (PDFLaTeX) to make a 48"x36" poster. However, using geometry at that setting results in a 8.5" x 11" document. What's wrong, and how to I create the size?

Answer 1

memoir provides its own geometry-setting mechanism:

\documentclass{memoir}% http://ctan.org/pkg/memoir
\setstocksize{36in}{48in}% Set paper size
\settrimmedsize{\stockheight}{\stockwidth}{*}% Equivalent trimmed size
\begin{document}
test
\end{document}

Read section 2.3 THE PAGE from the memoir documentation (p 8 onward).

Answer 2

I have no problem with the following MWE:

\documentclass{memoir}
\usepackage{geometry,lipsum}
\geometry{paperwidth=48in,paperheight=36in}
\begin{document}
\thispagestyle{empty}
\lipsum[1-15]
\end{document}

I got a 48" x 36" document using pdflatex.