When I was looking at designing my first big print piece, I decided it was time to learn more about the grid and about the measurement system of points and picas.
I started reading about picas and it immediately clicked with me: even our screen resolutions are based on this system! Haven’t you ever thought that 72 ppi was a rather random number? Well, there are 72 points in one inch, 72 pixels per inch. Hmm…maybe there really is no connection, but it sure seems coincidental.
The System
There’s a lot of history that went into making the pica system of measurement the way it is today. If you’re really curious, Size.com has a pretty extensive article on it.
All you really need to know to use this system is:
1 inch = 6 picas
1 pica = 12 points
1 inch = 72 points
By the way, for those in Canada, 1 pica = 4.0894 mm, according to the Size.com article.
Noting the System
If you want to talk about measurements in picas and points, you can note it like this: 1p6 (as InDesign, QuarkXPress and I do). 1p6 means 1 pica, 6 points, which is one and a half picas (because there are 12 points in 1 pica and half of 12 = 6).
- 2p0 means “Two picas.”
- 3p2 means “Three picas, two points.”
Confused? Subscribe to the Creative Curio feed because Friday you’ll see how to implement points and picas and why this system is so great!
I can’t wait for your Friday follow up article on picas. They confuse a heck out of me. Can you imagine me calculating how big/small things are using 1 pica = 4.0894 mm conversion. By the time I figure out how big is 12p7, I’ll get another headache
But I trust your judgement and look forward to the follow up.
Ok, Vivien, I’m going to look up and do the conversions myself for non-US standard paper sizes. I was curious, couldn’t find anything, but I do have quite a few readers outside the US. I’ll see if I can help you guys! If you have any more questions about picas/points after the next post, let me know! I’ll try to explain it a different way.
Vivien, how do you say your paper sizes? Do you use the ISO (A4, A3, etc) or do you use American paper sizes (letter which is 8.5 x 11, tabloid which is 11 x 17, etc)?
If you’re using ISO, then A4 = 842 points (not picas!) by 595 points, or 70p2 x 49p7, which doesn’t work as nicely with the halves and thirds thing like American paper sizes :(
Well, here in Canada we mainly use American paper sizes (letter, etc), but the graphic design work I do for the headquarters, and that’s in Europe, so they use European ISO sizes (A4, A3). Go figure now
I’ll wait for your follow up post and see if I have any more questions about those picas.
P.S. It’s a bit off topic, but are there any special rules I need to follow in InDesign to use special foreign characters, say certain letters in Spanish, or French, like é, etc? Say if I already have a Spanish translation - can I copy&paste it to my text box in InDesign, or should I format those special characters in a certain way?
I don’t envy you with those paper sizes, Vivien! As far as I know there is no special way to format them other than to use the glyphs for the specific font you are using. You can access the glyphs by going to Type>Glyphs (I think that’s right, I don’t have my ID open right now). You can try copy-paste, but it might give you a funny character for those accents. I’ve never worked with other languages before so I’m not too familiar with how InDesign handles them!
Thanks, Lauren. I’ll try setting up Glyphs, will let you know how that works out.
Another quick question:
To export my InDesign document in CS3 I go File-Package, and it creates a folder for me with all the source files, links, fonts, etc. The problem is that at the headquarters they can’t open the package, because they use CS2. Is there an option to export a package in CS3 to be compatible with the previous version?
You know, I’ve had that problem too (CS3 at work, CS2 at home). I have looked for an option to save a legacy file and I can’t find one. I haven’t looked in the Adobe Help documents, which are usually very informative. The only other thing I can suggest to you is to only export a PDF and send that.
yes, that’s what I’ve been doing - sending them PDF, but then with every little change they have to wait for me to update the document and send them an updated PDF. Usually with other software there’s always an option to save the file to the previous version, I’m surprised why it’s not in InDesign.
Yes, I know! Illustrator has that option! And even if it’s not an option, usually software is backwards compatible as long as you aren’t using any features only available in the latest version. It is frustrating. I’ll take a look at the help files and let you know if I find anything. If you figure something out, let me know too!
Well, I want to take advantage of an opening in the universe that allows me to get here. Vivien, please excuse me if I misunderstand your question. I find that the best way to insure accented characters show up correctly are by keying them in. é, for instance, is Option-e and e again. ü, or any letter with an umlaut above it is Option-u followed by the letter.
If I misunderstood what you’re asking, excuse me, as I’m knocked out from trying to get up the first entry of my series on becoming a book designer and then actually describing a project or two. I’ve got it there, but I’m not exactly thrilled with the length, tho’ I think I covered some stuff a beginner might like to know.
Oh, the way I found the key combos for the accents was by googling. That’s when I forget one. Originally, in the pre-Internet days, I used to scour the Quark and PageMaker manuals. hen worst came to worst I would call the client and ask their production supervisor. I mean, like, in 1992 when I started out
You should be able to get here reliably from now on Steve. I’ve switched hosts (or it’s in the process of switching. You’re comment is in the database of the new host). And I think that’s exactly what Vivien was asking. I didn’t know there were shortcuts for those!
Hi Steve. Thanks for the answer regarding the accented characters. That’s exactly what I wanted to know about. Aren’t you glad that it’s so much easier now to find what you need on the internet?
Lauren, congrats with the host switch. Looks like your domain name hasn’t been propagated yet, your site shows up with the IP address, but at least it works fine now. Hurrraaaah!
Yeah, Lauren, congratulations! It’s great to get here easily.
Vivien, there are, of course, other accent marks you’re going to want: circumflex, cedilla, acute, and I’m sure some that I’m not thinking of. But the Keyboard Viewer utility might display all of them and make it easier than needing to google.
Hi Vivien, actually, redirecting to the IP is exactly what it’s supposed to do. It has to do with the database connections and the options in WP (You know the Options page where you can tell WP where the database is stored? I have to leave that set to the new IP while the actual domain name is transerfing to a different server otherwise it’ll connect to the old host if the internet server you access hasn’t been notified of the change yet). I’m going to be changing it tonight, after I’m reasonably sure everyone has been updated.
Steve, glad to see you’ll be able to get over here more often and won’t be bugging me every time you can’t access my site
It looks like I forgot to transfer some of my images. I’ll be needing to update the email addresses too, so I appologize if you all aren’t getting your subscription emails for new comments to these posts!
By the way, seeing your translations of inches to points to picas reminds me that I’ve always seen it stated thusly: 1 inch equals “approximately” 72 points. Now, why would that be? Is it is or is it isn’t, right? But approximately?
It is approximately, and it should be the other way around. 72 points is approx. 1 inch. 72 points = 0.996 of an inch, but in digital typesetting it’s universally accepted to be rounded to 72 pts = 1 in. Read the size.com article I listed above. It explains the evolution of the system. It was probably originally based on Fournier’s system of type measurement (they have a funny little supposition at the end of history section that our pica is Fournier’s plus a little wear).
Steve, 1 inch can also be 72.27 points. So the way you stated it (1 inch is approx 72 pts) is correct, too. But anyway, it’s now accepted that 1 inch = exactly 72 points for digital purposes.
Thank you very much for this visual presentation of picas/points/inches.
I needed it!
GregB,
Hi there! I’m glad you found this info on points and picas useful. It’s a little frustrating to get used to a new system of measurement, but after you do, it makes life much easier!
Re: You know, I’ve had that problem too (CS3 at work, CS2 at home). I have looked for an option to save a legacy file and I can’t find one.
To save a backward compatible indesign file, you need to save it as an indesign exchange (.inx) file…/which can be done from the export menu.
David,
Ah!! Thank you for that tidbit on saving down InDesign docs!! I will have to try that out! I’ve not heard of it before. So glad you stopped by to let us know :D