Typographic point system
Sistema de puntos tipográficos
- Date
- 1737 (reformado 1783) · confidence high
- Place
- Paris, Île-de-France, France
- Credited to
- Pierre Simon Fournier and François-Ambroise Didot
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
A typographic scale based on the point, published by Fournier in 1737 and adjusted by Didot around 1785 to the royal foot. It gave type sizes a common unit.
The European Didot point and the Anglo-American pica point coexist today; in digital publishing the 1/72-inch PostScript point prevailed.
What it led to
- type sizes interchangeable between foundries
- the Anglo-American pica point of 1886
- point sizes in today's software