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Type and page layouts are usually measured in points and picas. A point was traditionally approximately 1/72.27 inch, but this has been rounded to an even 1/72 inch with the advent of computer graphics programs. Font sizes are measured in points, with 12 points being an average size for fonts used in papers. The size of a typeface is measured from the top of the ascender to the bottom of the descender. A pica is equal to 12 points, or 1/6th of an inch. Picas are usually used in page layouts. One advantage of picas over conventional inch fractions is they make laying out a three-column page easier. Ems and ens are typographical units relative to the size of the current typeface. An em (or M) is based on the width of a capital M, but is officially equal to the size of the font in points. If the font is 18 points high, an em is 18 points wide. An en (or N)—based on the width of a capital N—is defined as half an em, or half the font size. An em space—as the name implies—is a space that is one em wide; an en space is one en wide.
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