It was a death that should have been forgotten in history books, but people still insist on trying to resurrect it.
Picas, pronounced PIE-KAH, are a typographic measurement system developed in 1785 by François-Ambroise “L’éclat” Didot. Picas are comprised of 12 “points.” Back in 1785 a pica was 1/72.27 ft, or about 0.166044 inches. During the postscript computer era, Adobe rounded that out to 1/72 ft, or about 1.6667 inches.
Traditionally, Points and Picas were used to measure the height metal moveable type, leading, spacing a so forth. Being a very small and precise measurement made it well suited to this task, and it is used in much the same capacity today. When metal type was measured, the metal body the type was cast in was measured, not the type itself. This was carried forth into modern typography, where an invisible area surrounding the type known as an “Em Square” is what determines the point size of a font, not the font itself. Therefor, the cap height of a given font will typically be somewhat smaller than than the corresponding font’s Point size.
But my question of the day is: Why is still around today?
I laugh when I come across inDesign documents that are set at picas instead of the more popular standards of measurement for digital documents (inches, millimeters, points, or pixels). I understand that picas are still used everyday. Have you ever used a 12pt font? Well the pt indicates a point, which is 1/12th fraction of a Pica. Points are just about used anywhere a font is used that is intended for print. I get that, and I hope you understand that as well. But to use picas for rulers and guides on your document is just plain ridiculous. When designing elements or photos on a page, there is no need to think in picas. If you want a box to be 1 inch x 1 inch that is what you type in your parameters. You should not be typing 6p0 x 6p0.
I laugh when I come across inDesign documents that are set at picas instead of the more popular standards of measurement for digital documents (inches, millimeters, points, or pixels). I understand that picas are still used everyday. Have you ever used a 12pt font? Well the pt indicates a point, which is 1/12th fraction of a Pica. Points are just about used anywhere a font is used that is intended for print. I get that, and I hope you understand that as well. But to use picas for rulers and guides on your document is just plain ridiculous. When designing elements or photos on a page, there is no need to think in picas. If you want a box to be 1 inch x 1 inch that is what you type in your parameters. You should not be typing 6p0 x 6p0.
6p0 = 72pt = 1 inch
Picas are for typography, not document sizes, photo sizes or positioning on the page. The death of Picas died when the metal type went away. Let the pica live inside the point.