Convert Picas (pc) to Points (pt)

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).

The point is a unit of length in the field of typography and uses the symbol pt.

On computers (Word, Google Docs, design software and the web) a point is exactly 1/72 of an inch, or about 0.3528 mm. That is the point used for font sizes, so 12 pt text is about 4.2 mm tall. Older printing systems used slightly different points, such as the 0.3515 mm American printer’s point.

It is the smallest unit in the world of typography. There are 12 points in a pica.

In physical printing methods / press systems, the point size is the height of the metal press body on which the font's letters are made. When applied to the digital type space, letters are designed around a theoretical size, an em square which is scaled to the relative point size (when specified of course!).