1. Measurements in the Graphic Communications
Picas & Points
Measurements
in the
Graphic Communications

3. Measurement System
POINT SYSTEM: Graphic arts measuring system that was created because they had to work with smaller units of measurement than inches.
The standard units of measurement are POINT and PICA
1 inch = 6 picas
1 pica = 12 points
1 inch = 72 points

4. Measuring Device
LINE GAUGE: Graphic Arts ruler. A device used to measure type sizes and line lengths in points and picas.
Also known as E-Scale

5. Measure Strokes Length
Length of strokes are measured in Picas
Abbreviation for Pica is “P” Example: 8P
If not a whole Pica then the remaining measurement is measured in points.
NO: 8 1/2P
YES: 8P6p

6. Measure Strokes Width Weight of stroke is measured in Points
Abbreviation for Points is “pt” when used alone or a lowercase “p” when used with Picas
Example: 1 pt P6p

7. type Letterform Terms Ascender Descender
ASCENDER: refers to the parts of a lowercase letter that is above the font’s body-height
DESCENDER: refers to the parts of a lowercase letter that fall below the font’s body-height
Ascender
type
body-height
Descender

8. Measure Type Size Identify an ascender and draw a line above.
Identify a descender and draw a line below.
Measure between each line using the points scale on the line gauge.
You always measure between an Ascender and a Descender line.
Note: if an ascender or descender does not exist in the copy - imagine where it might be and draw the line above or below that area.

9. Measure Type Size
Typestyles
= Type
Size
Font p
= Type
Size

10. Type Size
Display Type: Type is 14 points or larger and is used for headings.
Body Type: Type is 13 points or less and is used for paragraphs

11. Leading
LEADING: amount of space between lines of type, measured in points.
Also known as linespacing
Leading comes from lead strips that were put between set lines. When type was set by hand in printing presses, slugs or strips of lead of appropriate thicknesses were inserted between lines of type to add vertical space, to fill available space on the page.

12. Leading or Linespacing Measure Leading Base line Determine the…
BASE LINE: An imaginary line drawn along bottom of body-height letters for each line of text.
Base line
Leading
or Linespacing

13. Use base lines to measure the leading.
Measure Leading
Measure from base line to base line.
Use base lines to measure the leading.
Leading
Size
Base line

14. Questions
The headline of a newspaper would be called what kind of type?
Display Type
What is leading?
Space between lines of type
What units of measurement are used in the graphic communications industry?
Picas and points
How many picas are in 2 inches?
12 picas

15. Questions
What two lines do you measure between to determine a type size?
Ascender line and the Descender line
What do you do when a descender or ascender is not present when measuring type?
Imagine/create one
How do you determine the leading?
Measure baseline to baseline