From the course: Glyphs App Essential Training

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Type measurement

Type measurement - Glyphs App Tutorial

From the course: Glyphs App Essential Training

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Type measurement

- [Narrator] Glyphs uses its own measurement system called, very generically, units. Units are a division of a larger measurement called an em, spelled E-M, which is short for m square. This section will tease apart the relationship between the unit and the em, and discuss the important elements that they're used to measure. Graphic design applications use points to measure type. Points are a division of a larger unit called the pica. There are 12 points in a pica, and there are six picas in an inch. The point size of a font is roughly the distance from the top of the ascender to the bottom of the descender. I say roughly because there's always a tiny bit of clearance built in at the top and bottom of a font. That distance, from the top of the ascender to the bottom of the descender, plus the clearance, is also the height of the em, and since the em is a square, it's also the width. So a 72 point em is 72 points tall and 72 points wide. A 12 point em is 12 points tall and 12 points…

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