Point vs. Big Point

In TeX 1pt (TeX point) is defined as 1/72.27 inch. Many other applications like Word and Adobe InDesign etc. however use a slightly bigger point – defined as 1/72 inch – the DTP or PostScript Point. In TeX this unit is named Big Point: 1bp.

You may download a complete list of available units from my website: Length units in TeX (1.25 MB; direct download)

2 thoughts

  1. This is incorrect. When Warnock and others developed PostScript, they defined the PostScript point as 1/72-inch. This can be verified by reference to the “PostScript Language Reference”, third edition, page 183.

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