• Some European types brought to U.S. use Didot point measurement system
• Basis of American point system began with Frenchman Fournier in 1737
• Printers still face problem of combining inches with picas and points

European type faces are increasingly in demand in advertising typography. Types founded in Europe for the American market are generally cast to the American point system in both size and height to paper, as the printers in this country represent a sizable dollar market.

Frequently, however, American print­ers become interested in European types before the latter have been adapted to our own point system. They purchase types cast to the Didot standard, based upon a point of 0.0148 inch. The foundries cut the types down from 0.928 inch to the American type height of 0.918 inch, but in the matter of body size there is vari­ance with our own point system.

Engineers have long despaired of print­ers and their unscientific procedures, and they have good reason to do so when they examine our system of measurement. Although printing is over 500 years old, there are living compositors who learned to stick type before our present point sys­tem became fully established. Even today there is little understanding of the factors which determined the selection of the so­-called American Point System.

The makeup man has learned to live with the problem of handling engravings manufactured in inches, as has the lock­ up man in determining the margins of type pages to paper pages. Any agreement seems as remote as ever, a situation com­parable to placing the cap “J” and cap “U” in alphabetical sequence in the type case.

In answer to the question, “What is a point?” there is a whole variety show of figures, most of them confusing. The size most frequently given is that a point equals 0.013837 inch, but it is sometimes listed as 0.013833 inch or even 0.01384 inch. Most printers shorten this to 0.0138, and every apprentice learns sooner or later that the picas on his gauge don’t agree with the inches, a fact which he generally accepts without question. (Six picas equals 0.996 inch.) A further departure may be noted in the slug-machine point, which is 0.014 inch.

Any attempt to trace the history of the “American” point must necessarily begin with the work of Pierre Simon Fournier, who published a pamphlet in 1737 stating that he had invented a typographic point system. In 1742, Fournier issued a specimen book showing types cast on this system. He later discussed his ideas in the famous Manuel Typographique, published in 1764.

Fournier elected to use as a standard, cicero, a name given to a size similar to our own pica. This size he divided into 12 equal parts which he called points, each point being 0.0137 inch. In explanation of his system, Fournier stated, “Types may be combined like arithmetical figures, as for example, two and two make four; add two, and there will be six; double this, and there will be 12, etc.”

Fournier began with a two-inch scale, each inch being sectioned into 12 lines containing six parts, hence 144 units. Unfortunately, none of Fournier’s measures were accurate. He made up from brass rule a table illustrating his system. Upon printing this table, he noticed that his dampened papers, when drying, had shrunk his scale slightly. Subsequently, he informed his readers, “In this print, I have prevented this error, by making a proper provision for the shrinking of the paper.”

In spite of such irregularities, the Fournier system was welcomed immediately by printers, and somewhat later by other French type founders.

The next steps were taken after the death of Fournier by another French type founder, François-Ambroise Didot, who attempted to base the points on an approved lineal measure, the French foot (12.7892 American inches). A further contribution of Didot was to assign a numerical name to each size, thus rejecting the old type names. A controversy arose in France as to the relative merits of the two systems, with the result that both were used for many years, to the complete confusion of all printers. Although Didot’s system came into use prior to the establishment of the metric system, it is still in use in most of Europe now.

(Editor’s note: Mr. Lawson will continue his discussion of printing measurements next month.)

This article first appeared in “The Composing Room” column of the March 1957 issue of The Inland Printer.