Re: Metric Typography Units

From: John Cowan (cowan@locke.ccil.org)
Date: Thu Jan 14 1999 - 12:36:46 EST


Markus Kuhn wrote:

> The legacy we have to fight with is that typewriters were invented in
> the US and most typographic software used today is exported from the US,
> and therefore the rest of the world has to suffer under the silly
> inch-based Flintstone units and will continue to do so in the 21st
> century. It's a real hassle.

<flame level='mild' type='chauvinism'>Hey, it was the U.S. who
devised the point system (admittedly based on the inch) back when
the rest of the world was still suffering from a variety of
*named* font sizes. The whole idea of standardizing on
*numerical* sizes in a fixed relationship to one another was
what we "foisted on the world".

I don't see what typewriters have to do with it: their font sizes
have nothing to do with points.</flame>

-- 
John Cowan	http://www.ccil.org/~cowan		cowan@ccil.org
	You tollerday donsk?  N.  You tolkatiff scowegian?  Nn.
	You spigotty anglease?  Nnn.  You phonio saxo?  Nnnn.
		Clear all so!  'Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)



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