Unit system: Typography
What is the Pica?
The pica is a unit of length in the field of typography and uses the symbol pc.
There are 12 points in 1 pica. On computers 1 pica is exactly 1/6 of an inch (about 4.23 mm).
Picas are expressed using numbers and a lower case p on software such as Adobe InDesign - for example 8p6 which would represent 8 picas and 6 points (or 8.5 picas).
The Pica is very useful in measuring and calculating the space needed to print letters and words on paper - for example when laying out books or magazine articles; the font lengths are quantified by the number of characters per pica (cpp).