Yes, but that's a bit too much for a unit that has fallen into disuse ;) In all seriousness, though, since it sounds like you'd know, what's a Cicero??
-Matt On Oct 16, 2012, at 4:50 PM, Fred Ridder <docudoc at hotmail.com> wrote: > > What's a pica? > > (kidding, kidding!!!!) > > > > ?and for those that don't know, 12 points=1 pica, 6 picas=1 inch > > Umm, not exactly. (Or maybe "not necessarily" is more apt.) There are three > definitions of the unit we know as a pica, and all of them are a little bit > different. > > The original definition is from 18th century France, where a pica was defined > as 12 Didot points, which worked out to 12 x 0.376 mm = 4.512 mm. > > The American definition was as a fraction of a foot: 0.013837 (or 1/72.27) to > be exact. That works out to 4.2175 mm. > > But the computer world likes rounder numbers, and the computer pica is 1/72 > of a foot (specifically the metrically redefined foot of 1959), and that > works out to 4.23333... mm. > > And if you're talking about those wonderful, archaic devices known as > typewriters, pica refers to a type size that is nominally 12 points tall and > about 7.2 points wide, resulting in 10 characters to the horizontal inch. > > -Fred Ridder -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.frameusers.com/pipermail/framers/attachments/20121016/62ff99fb/attachment.html>
