Career Specialty Forums >> Design Bistro >> Picas? Points? Inches?
Picas? Points? Inches?
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Posted about 1 year ago hey everyone, ive been a pro designer for about 8 years now and ive always worked in inches or pixels, its just what ive always been comfortable with. just thought i'd ask all you other designers what you work in (pica, point, inches, pixel, etc.....) and why? Screw it, I'm working in cicéros from now on. myspace.com/constructiv |
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| Posted about 1 year ago I work in pixels for web work and inches for print. Mainly because I have a clear visual understanding of both and they are standard measurement for screen size or paper supplies. |
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| Posted about 1 year ago I'm with you two. I've only ever worked in pixels for web and inches for print. With only one exception when I worked with points on a book cover. My Artist's Blog - "the capital A" -- http://thecapitala.wordpress.com/ |
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| Posted about 1 year ago I don't even know when to use picas. I only use points for web stuff and email images. |
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| Posted about 1 year ago Picas for print. Picas make the math easy for typesetting in points and for fitting layout on an inch-denominated page. Pixels are tied to hardware. “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” -- Albert Einstein |
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| Posted 9 months ago It seems since the use of the computer started to create print rather the keylining inches have been what is standard, but if you look after past the late ‘80 any creative person with their salt would never have worked in inches and would not have known what a pixel was. Why schools are not teaching that picas and points are what fonts are created in. 10 on 12, 8 on 9 etc. If you work with points for type, how and why would you add the complication of inches fractions and decimals points to the mix. Even the metric system would be less cumbersome. Worked for a sign shop a bit back, a font was measured in inches and the leading was figured from the distance from the bottom of the first line to the top of the next letter. Not event close the correct way. Then there was the arguement, measure from the T or the S. The correct way is from the bottom of the first line to the bottom of the next. To be accurate you use picas and points not inches and decimals. What a bloody nightmare!!! Years ago that standard column with was in picas. Now is is what ever. There has been some loss in translation of any standard out there. I would rather step and repeat picas and point. Guess I pretty much hate fractions of any kind. Old school and proud of it. The worse of it is, we have to conform to a really arcaic way of measure measurment. |
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| Posted 9 months ago This question makes me realize my age Each day is a gift, open it up and play with it! |
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| Posted 9 months ago I said this in another post, but I'll say it here as well...
I remember "specking" type, "masking" and pasting overlays and all that nonsense and I, for one, am glad computers do most of the work now. I don't have to worry about how I cut and paste the paper onto the image so when I shoot it there's no shadow on the film-paper, hence no re-shooting and screwing around with white-out tape or any of that crap. No spray fix. No rubber cement. Not to mention wasting time and money and materials redoing all that stuff if need be. I can scan in my artwork now, put up another layer in whatever program, set the type and do whatever I need to do in a quarter of the time it took and press on to more enjoyable things. I don't see it as a lost "art" at all. I see it as progress. I equate it to making a fire: would you rather rub two sticks together into a bit of starter for who-knows-how-long or use a BIC lighter so you can cook your food/get warm/make camp that much quicker? I'm showing my age, too! |
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| Posted 9 months ago When the matches are wet and the Bic is empty it is nice to be able to know how to start that fire? That is all I am saying. There was something about being able to to all that and to it right. At one time is was a given that you could not just click and design. For some reason it is expected to turn something around in minutes rather than days sometime a week if you sent your typesetting out. It is not just from the client, but people that should know better. That is the sad part. There was a chain of professionals that processed the work and it was a team effort. Believe me I would rather do this now, than with a t-square and glue one step, two step glue, wax, either to hot or to cold, stat cameras. But that is what we did and nothing else but design and production. Now cause the programs are out there and every school is pumping out “artists” everyone is an artist. It has brought the value of what we do way down. Plus the fact we have to “know” every which way to perform the end result. It is not possible. But demanded. There may be few that are able to do that, but would guess that it is small. Working at updating my skills in interactive media, last spring I asked students grauduting with 2 and 4 year degrees in print that were showing their work if they took any interactive media classes. Most said little or nothing. Are they prepared for the next 20 years? This was at an Art Institute of Minnesota school. Not a low brow school. Just one persons thought of where we were and were we are at. Two be able to strip an 8 point line of type into a keylined galley of type was a skill. To open a program is not. Many more can open that program and fumble there way through, you could not in those days. Things are different. Still like my picas and points. It is how I visuals my space and distance. Again, never liked fractions or decimals. Still don’t.
An outside question. Do you set your space after or before when setting up style sheets between lines? |
It has been about 20 years since I have used picas for much of anything... before that I used them all the time. As a designer you had to be able to spec your type before the typesetter (another skilled job lost to mechanization) produced the type for you to give to your production artist (not the same job it used to be either) to add to your keyline (another piece of history, lol).... Computers have totally changed the process. If you couldn't spec your type in a competent fashion you would have quickly lost your credibility as a functional designer - simple algebraic formulas were the key and were tatooed on your brain from constant use... I can't recall what they even are anymore - Gads, is it because the formulas are so irrelevant or is it just my age... or both? 
