U26264@UICVM.BITNET (Grant Hoover) (02/04/90)
Books:
There was a request for book suggestions. Here's mine. "The Type
Encyclopedia" by Frank J. Romano is one of the better books on typography
I've seen. Its dictionary style provides clear, concise, and informative
reference information by topic. The short-answer format, plentiful
illustrations, and relatively lively writing style (considering the
subject) keep the material easy to read and interesting. The book is
published by the R.R. Bowker Company of New York, and carries a list price
of 34.95. Another attractive feature is that Bitstream was giving this book
away at no charge (believe it or not) to people who bought their products,
and they might still be doing so. Bitstream can be reached at 800-522-
3668. The book has received favorable reviews (other than my own), and I've
seen it on bookshelves (also other than my own), so it's probably worth
paying for if it can't be found gratis.
This book and several other's are reviewed by Robert Eckhardt on page 37 of
the June, 1989, issue of Publish! magazine. While I'm handing out the
kudos, I might as well recommend Publish! magazine and its competitor
Personal Publishing as two more excellent sources of information on desktop
design and typography, especially for those of us who are competent with
computers but want to know more about desktop publishing. The magazines are
remarkably similar, and complement each other nicely.
Points:
The book I just plugged contains the following under its entry for Point
System:
********************
The point system is unique to typography. At one time, there were
three principal point systems in use, differing basically in
decimal detail.
The American-British System has for its standard of measurement
the .166-inch pica, and the .01383-inch point, that is , one-
twelfth of the pica. Thus, 1,000 lines of pica, or 12-point,
matter measure 166 inches, and 1,000 lines of 6-point matter
measure 83 inches.
The Didot System, used in Europe, has the cicero as its basic
unit, equal to 12 corps, or .178 inch; and the Didot corps, or
point, measures exactly .01483 inch.
The Mediaan System, used principally in Belgium, has a corps
(point) measurement of .01374 inch. The Mediaan em, or cicero,
measured .165 inch. Now mostly Didot.
Much of Europe is now moving to purely metric measurements.
For general, practical measurement purposes, three decimals
(thousandths of an inch) are deemed sufficient.
At 30 picas or 5 inches we get 4.98" -- so be careful in you
calculations. It is convenient to remember 6 picas in one inch,
12 points in one pica, 72 points in one inch -- but it's not
quite true. Picas and points do not have an exact relationship to
inches.
********************
If all this is too much for you, a Typographical Glossary offered by
Personal Publishing magazine in its June, 1989, issue defines points and
picas as follows:
Point: The basic unit of measurement in typography. There are
twelve points to a pica.
Pica: A measure of type equal to 12 points or approximately 1/6
of an inch.
I hope this information is helpful. If you have any questions, don't
hesitate to ask.
Grant Hoover
University of Illinois at Chicago
Chicago, Illinois . .
Bitnet: U26264@UICVM .
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