InDesign Help - Something Very Very Simple

[Mark_Biggs@adobeforums.com]

Hi

Can someone PLEASE tell me how long a 'point' is?

thank you

[Cris_I@adobeforums.com]

Depends...
Either 1"/72, either 1"/70
In InDesign 1pt=1"/72=0.0139" (0.01388888")

Cris.

[Mark_Biggs@adobeforums.com]

Very much appreciated:)

[Karen_C@adobeforums.com]

In the old measurements there are 72 points to an inch.
6 picas = 1 inch. 1 pica or em = 12 points.
Typewriters all have measurements in picas.
(We use centimetres and millimetres in Oz.)

When I began in design and typesetting in 1974 you used to have to calculate and mark up type accurately for it to be set on galleys to cut and paste. Being mathematically inclined was a bonus and having to count across lines and measure all the type up in various sizes accurately was quite a challenge.

I still love designing and typography after all this time.
In case you are wondering, I am almost 48 years young and am continually updating my software and keeping up-to-date.
Although a "young person" of 24 recently told me that there are not many people of my age in design, I have no intention of stopping learning and I love Adobe products.

[mikewitherell_at_jetsetcom_dot_net]

Mark,

A point is one-twelfth of a pica. There are precisely 6 picas to the inch, and 72 points in an inch. That precise measure is only since the advent of computerized typesetting, circa 1985. The pica/point measurement system has been around since the 1870s, but prior to computers, 72 points equaled nearly an inch, (can't remember the precise conversion) but not precisely. In fact, throughout Europe and elsewhere, everyone had there own size system. Ciceros/didots are nearly the same as picas/points, but not the quite the same, for example. The printing industry gradually standardized starting in the 1890s. The Aldus PageMaker pica and point really standardized many places throughout the globe since 1985.

Mike Witherell in Washington DC

[Steve_Werner@adobeforums.com]

A point is one-twelfth of a pica. There are precisely 6 picas to the inch,
and 72 points in an inch. That precise measure is only since the advent
of computerized typesetting, circa 1985.




I'd agree with Mike that it was the advent of Aldus PageMaker that standardized the point as 72 to the inch. But I believe the reason PageMaker used that was because that's the way the PostScript language defines it. The PostScript Language Reference Manual came out the year before, in 1984.

[Ken_Grace@adobeforums.com]

From page 47 of the InDesign CS User Guide:

"Note: Like other graphic-arts software from Adobe and other companies,
InDesign uses PostScript points, which don't correspond exactly to
traditional printer points. There are 72.27 traditional printer points in an
inch, as opposed to 72 PostScript points."


k

[mikewitherell_at_jetsetcom_dot_net]

Ah there it is. 72.27. I couldn't remember where I had read that.

But what after all is now the traditional measure? Is it not the electronic-era pica, as defined in PostScript (thanks Steve!)? Where is old metal type still in use in any large-scale operation?

Mike Witherell

[Steve_Werner@adobeforums.com]

Somewhere there is someone still using a workflow that depends on 72.27 points to the inch. But I've never seen it.

If we're lucky, someone will let us know about it! Unfortunately, the title of this thread won't lead them here.

[Bob_Levine]

Unfortunately, the title of this thread won't lead them here.




It might now. <g>

Bob

[Dirck_Van_Lieu@adobeforums.com]

Gee, I remember 48...

[M_Blackburn@adobeforums.com]

Typewriters all have measurements in picas.




Inaccurate: typewriters are sixths (vertically) and tenths (horizontally) of an inch — not picas. As has been stated the "original" pica is not exactly a sixth of an inch (you can search this forum for some very detailed history of all this).

Having done markup for traditional typesetting for many years, and primarily for business forms that were intended to be filled out on a typewriter, I had to painstakingly be aware of that seemingly small difference.

[Andrew_da_Smith@adobeforums.com]

Of course, the size of a point can vary depending on whom you are arguing with.

<ducking!>

Andrew

[Ken_Grace@adobeforums.com]

That seemed a pointed (or pointless) comment.

k