When you use computer programs such as Microsoft Word, have you ever wondered exactly what size is a 12 point font? There's some preset numbers and then you can also select your own, but what is the point and what is the point of a font size? This video will cover text measurement standards, covering what point size is based on and why we are offered these numbers when picking a font size. Point size is a legacy from the letter press system, where each letter was etched into a small little metal block. The point size actually refers to the size of this metal block and not the size of the letter. Each front was made into various point sizes of metal letter presses for printers to pick from. To this day we tend to use 12 point or even 10 point or 14 point font for text type or blocks of longer text, and then for display type or headers and headlines, we could go bigger to draw attention to certain parts of the page or to help divide up the information on the page. Back when typesetters actually set type for graphic designers, they used typographical rulers called type gauges to help determine point size. You can see that interests are noted on one of these gauges. But if we place the same ruler next to letter presses of various metal typefaces, we can say they are not all one-inch tall or even the same sizes. You can also see on the right side of the gauge is the number six. This refers to picas, these are units of measurement used for centuries by printers and typesetters to standardize the size of typeface and metal blocks of letter press. In America, we tend to measure on inches and you can see that six picas equals about one inch. Therefore pica's are approximately one-sixth of an inch, six pica's equals about an inch. To offer even more variation of type sizes, we now measure type and points. As you can see, there are 12 points per pica and 72 points per inch. Therefore, in theory, 70 points should measure about one inch of the height of a text, or if you picked 72 on a computer programs, such as word when you are deciding the size of your text, the height of the text should be about one inch. But let's take a moment to check the accuracy of this standardized measurement of type. In earlier video, we discussed Sara fonts. Here are few of them. You recall Sara fonts have feet or flourishes at the top and bottom of some letter forms making them unique. Now, all of these Sara fonts are set to 72 points, so they should be one-inch tall. But remember, point size is based off the small letter x in a font family which is called x-height. This is why point sizes may seem to vary from font to font because the size of the small x will vary too. So if we lay a one-inch graph over these fonts, we can see they are not all exactly one inch tall. Factors such as x-height, stroke, asenders and descender, and weight of the typefaces vary. So therefore, the point size will also vary. Let's try the same experiment with Sans Serif fonts. Remember, these are tight faces is without feets or flourishes at the bottom of the characters and they tend to be more blocky, and made out of straight stems and strokes. Now, all of these sentences are set to 72 points but when we measure them with our one-inch graph, we can see the actual point sizes differ depending on the typeface. Now, ironically point size is perhaps the element most used to describe the legibility of typeface. But as our experiments showed, it can also be the most deceptive. Therefore, keeping point size in mind is an important consideration when determining what fonts to use for design projects. Remember, the primary concern of a graphic designer when sizing font is to keep in mind the user and the end goal of the project, what is the intention of the design project and where do you want the attention of the viewer or user to go, both of which are key design challenges to remember when picking a point size of a font.
