type measurement pica point measure depth of column

#Type measurement pica point measure depth of column plus#

So, how do you decide how wide to make your columns? There are many opinions, but here is my way that works well and doesn’t require a ruler: If your column is too narrow, words may be hyphenated more frequently than you want, or readers’ eyes may grow tired from darting back and forth more times than normal.Ĭonversely, if your line length is too wide, readers may stumble to the next line while they read-the extra distance makes it hard to know which is the next line. Typographers have to take care in deciding line lengths for body text. Line lengths for typesetting are measured in picas. Let’s look at spacing, line measures and the like. By the way, these are all actual newspaper headlines! Look at the examples at the left for variations on leading. Word processing programs today may refer to this as line spacing or line height but page layout programs refer to this as leading. The thicker the strips of lead, the more space between lines. This would be called setting the type “solid.” If the typographer wants to have the lines of type spaced further apart, actual strips of lead are inserted between these lines of type. You can also see that the four lines are directly placed against each other. If you look closely at the four lines of type in this composing stick, you can see the individual type blocks for each character. Okay, let’s get to that “leading” explanation.

(See the Times Roman and Helvetica 55 Roman “type” examples at left.) This means the same word set the same size in two different typefaces may look as if they are two different sizes. Some typefaces have taller x-heights or wider characters. Some typefaces have tall ascenders or long descenders. The point size is based on the height of the type blocks. See how the ascender on the lowercase h extends higher than the capital T? Each block has to be uniform in height so that the font has a consistent baseline. These represent the top and bottom of the type blocks. Look at the red lines above and below the Teachings lettering at left. So, the blocks all have to be tall enough to contain the caps, the ascenders, and the descenders. All the blocks of a specific point size typeface are all the same height. Metal type is cast-letter by letter-on individual blocks. This is a point of confusion since this system comes from the metal type days. So, how do you measure type? If you set Helvetica Bold, 18 point, are the capital letters 18 points high? No. The next image down shows we also measure line weights (aka rules) in points.

#Type measurement pica point measure depth of column plus#

Picas and points are used for measuring all things type, plus more. So, 12 points in each pica, and 6 picas per inch. The smallest tick marks across the top represent 2 points each. You can see from the short (but enlarged) section of a pica ruler the normal inch measurement on one side and picas on the opposing side. Let’s start with some basic terms of measurements illustrated at the left. And Peatah’s mission is to promote the artistry of type-no matter the technology. The nostalgic vocabulary helps to instill the history of this craft. “Leading” just doesn’t seem like the right choice now to us whippersnappers.īut I appreciate this. What’s unusual is not so much the measurement system, but that terms from these metal type days are still used today. So, mixing type from various foundries was difficult. Prior to that, different type foundries had different ways of measuring their type. A standard system of measurement within typography came about in the late 19th century.