|
Length/Distance | Convert from barleycorn to point [Didot] |
Related Categories:
Common Length Conversions Metric Length Conversions Unit Definition (barleycorn) The Barleycorn is an old English unit of length. The custom of using seeds as units of length or weight is very common in farming societies. In Anglo-Saxon England, where barley was a basic crop, barleycorns played this traditional role. The weight of a barleycorn, later renamed the grain, is the original basis of all English weight systems including the older troy system and the later avoirdupois system. As a length unit, 3 barleycorns were equal to the Saxon ynce (inch). The English foot was actually defined as 12 of these ynces, that is, as 36 barleycorns. Unit Definition (point [Didot]) The point is a unit of length used by typographers and printers. When printing was done from hand-set metal type, one point represented the smallest element of type that could be handled, roughly 1/64 inch. Eventually, the point was standardized in Britain and America as exactly 1/72.27 = 0.013 837 inch, which is about 0.35 mm (351.46 micrometers). In continental Europe, typographers traditionally used a slightly larger point of 0.014 83 inch (about 1/72 pouce, 0.377 mm, or roughly 1/67 English inch), called a Didot point after the French typographer Firmin Didot (1764-1836). In the U.S., Adobe software defines the point to be exactly 1/72 inch (0.013 888 9 inch or 0.352 777 8 millimeters), a unit sometimes called the big point (bp). The German standards agency DIN has proposed that all these units be replaced by multiples of 0.25 millimeters (1/101.6 inch).
|
|