Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!jaap+ From: jaap+@andrew.cmu.edu (Jaap Akkerhuis) Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript Subject: Re: ruler.ps - an inch/point ruler of your very own Message-ID: Date: 15 Jan 90 21:17:31 GMT References: <21772@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> <1990Jan14.180821.18711@trigraph.uucp>, <1990Jan15.183143.7677@intercon.com> Organization: Information Technology Center, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA Lines: 23 In-Reply-To: <1990Jan15.183143.7677@intercon.com> The discussion about the size of the point seems to pop up every couple of points. And yes, there is an official size defined by certain standard committees, which of course mobody cares about for obvious reasons as stated by Amanda. Speculations why Adobe choose 72 points/inch and the relation to floating point, phases of the moon etc. are of course just speculations. Excerpts from netnews.comp.lang.postscript: 15-Jan-90 Re: ruler.ps - an inch/poin.. Amanda Walker@mermaid.in (1282) > It's actually even worse, especially if you take European conventions > into account. European conventions. Ha! Tell me about Europe. There are no such things as European conventions. There are a couple of different systems in use, what is in use in the U.S, is known as the Pica point system elsewhere in the world. Then of course there is the Didot, there are the augustijns etc. Anyway, officially, there is no need to use these old names which doesn't have any legel meaning, one should use the metric system! jaap