I checked some books and magazines (North American and UK). Most type size
(upper case, as well as letters with upper extenders) is between 2.0 and 2.5
mm. Larger for headlines, etc.
John F-L
----- Original Message -----
From: John M. Steele
To: U.S. Metric Association
Sent: Monday, June 21, 2010 11:28 AM
Subject: [USMA:47888] Re: Type size
Pat,
Double-check those types sizes. I don't think I could read a book with 0.5
mm type.
I measured text in the Wall Street Journal and a few books. Normal body
text seems to be about 1.4 mm lower case letters, 2 mm capitals. To include
larger fonts in headlines, I would probably stick with millimeters and one
decimal, but micrometers would work too.
From: Pat Naughtin <pat.naugh...@metricationmatters.com>
To: U.S. Metric Association <usma@colostate.edu>
Sent: Mon, June 21, 2010 3:43:38 AM
Subject: [USMA:47886] Type size
On 2010/06/21, at 07:48 , Pierre Abbat wrote:
The *type size* in centimeters? That's too big a unit for measuring letters.
Pierre
Dear Pierre,
You're right, as a unit, centimetre is too big for type size – and so is
millimetre.
I think that the printing industry will eventually get over its dedication
to old mediaeval names for type. Ciceros, didos, ems, ens, picas, and points
(both the UK and USA versions) will eventually be replaced by a sane and
simple metric system. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typographic_unit to
get a taste of the mess the printing industry is in!
To measure letters this sanely and simply you could start with measuring the
height of each letter in micrometres.
As the text in books or newspapers tends to be about 500 micrometres this
would have the advantage that all letter height descriptions would be in
whole numbers and most of these (except for headlines or headings) would be
less than 1000 micrometres. See
http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/WholeNumberRule.pdf
Lateral measures could also use the same idea with ems and ens specified in
micrometres as well. I know that many will balk at the idea of a letter m as
(say) 2600 micrometres wide because 'the number is too big'. However
consider that you have just won 2600 in a lottery – is the number still too
big?
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, see
http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html
Hear Pat speak at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lshRAPvPZY
PO Box 305 Belmont 3216,
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