UI measurement issue



  • As a typographer I use points and picas. You do know that there are 12 points in a pica. I do not seem to be able to change the UI to use points and picas. \// I would like to be able to naturally use the following:

    Type size = points
    Leading = Points
    Space before = points
    Space after = points

    text frame width = picas [which is line length].

    and so on...

    We really do not need Agates (whew thankfully)

    I am really beginning to enjoy this application [program in past parlance]

    Professor S. Shecter RGD MFA



  • @typeglyph If I understand correctly, once you set the app to use (Postscript) points from File > Document Setup > General tab, you'd like the values of certain objects to be displayed in picas?



  • Yes. For example 12p6 would be equivalent to 12.5 picas. If I enter the value of 3 pts, I'd like the requester to display 3 pts rather than some other measure system, for example Ciceros, millimetres, inches etc. I posted this as a bug because the program is not providing measurements consistently. Since it is using postscript points, rather than the other measurement systems, it should be consistent. This may be a bit nit picky, but the idea is to make our workflow easy.

    The really nice thing about computers is that they can handle arithmetic; computations and conversions, i.e.: 13p6 + 0p8 would compute to 14p2 and display that correctly and not in a decimal equivalent 14.1666 picas.

    Thankfully most of our chips can now handle negative integers better than before so the arithmetic computation is more accurate. And Postscript no longer requires the zero. zero point to be in the lower left corner of the page grid. Sorry maybe too much history, <<grin>>


  • administrators

    @typeglyph said in UI measurement issue:

    12p6

    I think the number editors are not able (yet) to understand this format.

    To turn specific number editors to pica, just write "1 pica" (any number will do) and that field should stay pica.



  • @VectorStyler

    Way back B.C. (Before Computers; personal computers) the standard notation was in picas and points. When specifying (type spec’ing) text copy to be type set, the notation used was 11/13 x 30, we knew this would translate to the typesetter (a person not a machine) to mean: 11 point type over 13 points of leading set in a 30 pica line. The 13 points of leading was actually +2 points more than the type size (point size).

    Ok great progress since then. Because we now use Adobe as the “standard” to gauge other software by, I believe it took them a few years to allow that measure system. Again computers are great at arithmetic, when processors can handle the math, the pentium math bug comes to mind.

    Thank you for a great program.


  • administrators

    @typeglyph BTW: the next build will have support for number input / display using the the "12p6" style format (already implemented, release planned for next week).


  • administrators

    @typeglyph Pica number formats should be supported now.