Pica (typography)

The pica is a typographic unit of measure corresponding to approximately  1⁄72 of a foot, or  1⁄6 of an inch. Actually a new English pica was in 1886 defined as .1660 of an inch. This measure was based on the meter: 166 Nonparel equals 35 centimeters. The pica contains 12 point units of measure (.1660 inch). The first point-system was designed in 1737 by Pierre Simon Fournier le Jeune (1712–1768). The basis was the Paris foot: 1 foot = 12 thumbs, 1 thumb = 12 stripes, 1 stripe = 6 points. To date, in printing these three pica measures are used:

Pica (typography)

The pica is a typographic unit of measure corresponding to approximately  1⁄72 of a foot, or  1⁄6 of an inch. Actually a new English pica was in 1886 defined as .1660 of an inch. This measure was based on the meter: 166 Nonparel equals 35 centimeters. The pica contains 12 point units of measure (.1660 inch). The first point-system was designed in 1737 by Pierre Simon Fournier le Jeune (1712–1768). The basis was the Paris foot: 1 foot = 12 thumbs, 1 thumb = 12 stripes, 1 stripe = 6 points. To date, in printing these three pica measures are used: