Picas & Points
Measurements
in the
Graphic Communications
0
1
2
1/2
1/2
Measure - Strokes Font Size Leading
Inch
es
Measurement System
• POINT SYSTEM: Graphic arts measuring system that was created because they had to work with smaller units of measurement than inches.
• The standard units of measurement arePOINT and PICA
• 1 inch = 6 picas• 1 pica = 12 points• 1 inch = 72 points
Measuring Device
• LINE GAUGE: Graphic Arts ruler. A device used to measure type sizes and line lengths in points and picas.
• Also known as E-Scale
Measure Strokes Length
• Length of strokes are measured in Picas
• Abbreviation for Pica is “P” Example: 8P
• If not a whole Pica then the remaining measurement is measured in points. NO: 8 1/2P
YES: 8P6p
Measure Strokes Width
• Weight of stroke is measured in Points
• Abbreviation for Points is “pt” when used alone or a lowercase “p” when used with Picas
• Example: 1 pt 8P6p
Letterform Terms
• ASCENDER: refers to the parts of a lowercase letter that is above the font’s body-height
• DESCENDER: refers to the parts of a lowercase letter that fall below the font’s body-height
typeAscender
Descender
body-height
Measure Type Size
1. Identify an ascender and draw a line above.
2. Identify a descender and draw a line below.
3. Measure between each line using the points scale on the line gauge.
4. You always measure between an Ascender and a Descender line.
• Note: if an ascender or descender does not exist in the copy - imagine where it might be and draw the line above or below that area.
Measure Type Size
= Type SizeTypestyles
= Type SizeFontp
Type Size
• Display Type: Type is 14 points or larger and is used for headings.
• Body Type: Type is 13 points or less and is used for paragraphs
Leading
• LEADING: amount of space between lines of type, measured in points.
• Also known as linespacing
Leading comes from lead strips that were put between set lines. When type was set by hand in printing presses, slugs or strips of lead of appropriate thicknesses were inserted between lines of type to add vertical space, to fill available space on the page.
Measure Leading
Determine the…• BASE LINE: An imaginary line drawn along bottom of body-height letters for
each line of text.
Leading
or Linespacing
Base line
Measure Leading
• Measure from base line to base line.
Use base lines to measure the leading.
Base line
Leading Size
Questions
• The headline of a newspaper would be called what kind of type? Display Type
• What is leading? Space between lines of type
• What units of measurement are used in the graphic communications industry? Picas and points
• How many picas are in 2 inches? 12 picas
Questions
• What two lines do you measure between to determine a type size? Ascender line and the Descender line
• What do you do when a descender or ascender is not present when measuring type? Imagine/create one
• How do you determine the leading? Measure baseline to baseline