Non-Designer’s Type Book, The, Second Edition

Points and Picas

When you’re working with type, you need to work in points and picas. It’s just like using inches and feet, but the sizes are smaller—there are 12 inches in a foot; there are 12 points in a pica. But like I said, points and picas are much smaller—6 picas in 1 inch (which makes 72 points, then, in one inch).

Even if you’ve never formally worked with points before, you have a pretty good idea about how big 10-point type is as opposed to 24-point type because you choose and use point sizes of type on your computer all the time. So don’t get nervous, just be conscious about those tiny sizes and try to use them more often. When your software, for instance, gives you a choice of using points or inches or lines, try using points. Once ...