From my experience in the world of prepress 723pts == 10in. Then Adobe unleashed PostScript on us and redefined the point so that 72pt == 1in. I’m unaware of any other definitions of a point. -Milo

Hi Milo, Below is an extract from GNU units 2.17's /usr/share/units/definitions.units. # # Printing # fournierpoint 0.1648 inch / 12 # First definition of the printers # point made by Pierre Fournier who # defined it in 1737 as 1|12 of a # cicero which was 0.1648 inches. olddidotpoint 1|72 frenchinch # François Ambroise Didot, one of # a family of printers, changed # Fournier's definition around 1770 # to fit to the French units then in # use. bertholdpoint 1|2660 m # H. Berthold tried to create a # metric version of the didot point # in 1878. INpoint 0.4 mm # This point was created by a # group directed by Fermin Didot in # 1881 and is associated with the # imprimerie nationale. It doesn't # seem to have been used much. germandidotpoint 0.376065 mm # Exact definition appears in DIN # 16507, a German standards document # of 1954. Adopted more broadly in # 1966 by ??? metricpoint 3|8 mm # Proposed in 1977 by Eurograf oldpoint 1|72.27 inch # The American point was invented printerspoint oldpoint # by Nelson Hawks in 1879 and texpoint oldpoint # dominates USA publishing. # It was standardized by the American # Typefounders Association at the # value of 0.013837 inches exactly. # Knuth uses the approximation given # here (which is very close). The # comp.fonts FAQ claims that this # value is supposed to be 1|12 of a # pica where 83 picas is equal to 35 # cm. But this value differs from # the standard. texscaledpoint 1|65536 texpoint # The TeX typesetting system uses texsp texscaledpoint # this for all computations. computerpoint 1|72 inch # The American point was rounded point computerpoint computerpica 12 computerpoint # to an even 1|72 inch by computer postscriptpoint computerpoint # people at some point. pspoint postscriptpoint twip 1|20 point # TWentieth of an Imperial Point Q 1|4 mm # Used in Japanese phototypesetting # Q is for quarter frenchprinterspoint olddidotpoint didotpoint germandidotpoint # This seems to be the dominant value europeanpoint didotpoint # for the point used in Europe cicero 12 didotpoint stick 2 inches # Type sizes excelsior 3 oldpoint brilliant 3.5 oldpoint diamondtype 4 oldpoint pearl 5 oldpoint agate 5.5 oldpoint # Originally agate type was 14 lines per # inch, giving a value of 1|14 in. ruby agate # British nonpareil 6 oldpoint mignonette 6.5 oldpoint emerald mignonette # British minion 7 oldpoint brevier 8 oldpoint bourgeois 9 oldpoint longprimer 10 oldpoint smallpica 11 oldpoint pica 12 oldpoint english 14 oldpoint columbian 16 oldpoint greatprimer 18 oldpoint paragon 20 oldpoint meridian 44 oldpoint canon 48 oldpoint # German type sizes nonplusultra 2 didotpoint brillant 3 didotpoint diamant 4 didotpoint perl 5 didotpoint nonpareille 6 didotpoint kolonel 7 didotpoint petit 8 didotpoint borgis 9 didotpoint korpus 10 didotpoint corpus korpus garamond korpus mittel 14 didotpoint tertia 16 didotpoint text 18 didotpoint kleine_kanon 32 didotpoint kanon 36 didotpoint grobe_kanon 42 didotpoint missal 48 didotpoint kleine_sabon 72 didotpoint grobe_sabon 84 didotpoint -- Cheers, Ralph. https://plus.google.com/+RalphCorderoy

On Sat, Oct 27, 2018 at 11:53:20AM -0400, Clem Cole wrote: Oh, man, do I remember them. While better than nothing, they left a lot to be desired. A friend of mine (cc-ed), used to really care about this stuff. I can still remember him getting out an eye loup and looking at the apple laser printer output. I can't remember if he liked it or was disappointed but he cared.