Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!decwrl!adobe!vonzelow
From: vonzelow@adobe.COM (Jon von Zelowitz)
Newsgroups: comp.fonts
Subject: Re: Proportional spacing and letters per inch
Message-ID: <947@adobe.UUCP>
Date: 27 Jun 89 00:54:29 GMT
References: <963@oravax.UUCP>
Reply-To: vonzelow@adobe.UUCP (Jon von Zelowitz)
Organization: Adobe Systems Incorporated, Mountain View
Lines: 16

In article <963@oravax.UUCP> harper@oravax.UUCP (Douglas Harper) writes:
>How can you determine the nominal number of letters per inch of a
>proportionally spaced typeface?  For instance, if the string of ten
>letters
>
>	oooooooooo
>
>takes up one inch, is the nominal value 10?

A couple of standard measurements for the space taken up by
proportionally-spaced characters in a specified point size are "alphabet
length" and "characters per pica". Alphabet length refers to the measure of
a lower-case alphabet with normal letterspacing. I've also seen similar
measurements using "typical" english-language text as the test string.

    Jon von Zelowitz     ...sun!adobe!vonzelow      My opinions only.