Talk:Point (typography)

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Contents 1 An article tying all the sizes together? 2 Anglo-Saxon? 3 Very Messy Article 4 Ciceros/French Points in Computer software? 5 Fraction 6 So what part of a 12pt font is 12pts, in modern type systems? 7 Isn't this entry redundant?

[edit] An article tying all the sizes together?

Please see Talk:Pixel#Difference_between_px.2C_pt.2C_em about an article to tie all these sizes and DPI etc. together. - Omegatron 16:37, Apr 6, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Anglo-Saxon?

The usual description of the point was that the US and British inches were slightly different, one a bit larger than 25.4 mm/inch and one a bit smaller. This mattered because on a single page of newsprint there could be over a thousand points. In the nineteenth century, the standard was based on the centimetre, but not by a direct ratio, for both the US and Britain to have it be readily available to both domains.

In 1959, the International inch was settled upon, as that which the Australians had already chosen, and which had been suggested by many industries. The notes from French usage are appreciated, but no Commonwealth country, nor the US, calls it the "Anglo-Saxon" inch.

In the 1970's or so, the Germans wanted a metric basis, so their DIN chose 375 micrometres for their point. I wonder whether it caught on.

The main difference between the British/US and the Continental points is that other languages need extra room on top for all the diacritical marks on capital letters, e.g., É, Ö, Å... - so the point was a bit bigger for the Continental printers. Sobolewski 19:29, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Very Messy Article

This really needs to be cleaned up -- it needs to start with the basics of the American system, noting the transition from traditional measure to computer measure.

Then discuss the similar French system... simply.

It really doesn't need a lot about 19th Century meter-yard conversions -- you might refer to an article on that for those interested in calibrating atomic vibration to Helvetica printout.

[edit] Ciceros/French Points in Computer software?

What is the exact size used for ciceros in design software like Quark?

Also refer to the cicero article -- info there states a "standard" of 4.5mm for a cicero adopted in 1975 -- see talk section, and right sidebar with metrical equivalents.

[edit] Fraction

I find 15 625 / 83 118 difficult to read. Commas would make clearer that this is the quotient of two five digit numbers. (Commas without spaces as in 15,625 / 83,118 are unambiguous.) Septentrionalis PMAnderson 15:45, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] So what part of a 12pt font is 12pts, in modern type systems?

The article doesn't seem to address this question. At least not clearly. —Pengo 08:07, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

That's because the answer is "no specific part of a 12 pt font is 12 pts, in modern type systems." Weird, but true. That's why the whole thing is hard to understand; when applied to digital fonts, the concept is non-obvious and odd. Thomas Phinney (talk) 02:06, 30 March 2008 (UTC)

For some reason, the main article recently contained this editorial question: "When measuring height, does this refer to the height of a capital letter or a lower-case letter (that is, is it the x-height or the cap-height)?"

The answer is "neither," and is covered in detail under [Em (typography)]. I deleted the editorial question from the body of the article. I'll go put in an explanation now. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tphinney (talk • contribs) 20:43, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Isn't this entry redundant?

We had already had the following entry. Typographic unit

Why was this added? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Taro Yamamoto (talk • contribs) 01:57, 3 May 2008 (UTC)