Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!intercon!news From: amanda@mermaid.intercon.com (Amanda Walker) Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript Subject: Re: ruler.ps - an inch/point ruler of your very own Message-ID: <1990Jan22.022334.379@intercon.com> Date: 22 Jan 90 02:23:34 GMT References: <21772@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> <1990Jan14.180821.18711@trigraph.uucp>, <17690@rpp386.cactus.org> Sender: @intercon.com Reply-To: amanda@mermaid.intercon.com (Amanda Walker) Organization: InterCon Systems Corporation, Sterling, VA Lines: 26 In article <17690@rpp386.cactus.org>, woody@rpp386.cactus.org (Woodrow Baker) writes: > I know that. PLEASE read messages in context. I was asking what the name > for the metric system of "points" was. We call them points, and measure them > in 1/100 ths of an inch. What is the metric equivelent name, and is the measure > given in mm, cm, dm, microns or just what. Sigh. Woody, I didn't mean to take you out of context, but it seemed a strange (or silly) question. One of the features of the metric system is that for every type of quantity that you can measure in it, there is one and only one unit of measure, with standard prefixes for commonly used powers of ten multipliers for that unit. A typesetter using the metric system would use cm, or mm, or microns, depending on the size of the quantity being measured. A ten point font, for example, would be specified as a 3.5mm font. Of course, it's quite possible that the European printing industry hasn't switched to the metric system and thus still uses points of one flavor or another. However, you seem to be the only person that thought the original poster was referring to some special metric unit of type size. I think that the reason people have been making silly comments at you is because you mis-read the original article, not that they mis-read yours. Amanda Walker InterCon Systems Corporation --