The history of the point.(Frank Talk)(measurement system for type)

The Great Chicago Fire, one of the first corporate conglomerates, and a badly printed ruler helped forge the unique measurement system for type. Simon Fournier proposed a system of 72 points per inch in 1737, and published a printed scale for reference. Depending on the weather, the printed scale changed in size. Since the ruler was used as a reference, printers and font makers suffered from inconsistent tools and measures. In 1770 Francois Didot proposed a solution by defining a point as exactly 1/72 of a French inch. (A French inch is equal to 1.0638 English inches.)

Type sizes were originally named. Catalogs with such names appeared a early as 1592. Some of the names came from the type of book produced in that size. Cicero was a size used for editions of classical authors; Primer was used for religious books ordered by Henry VIII. Another class of names boasted the type's beauty, such as Paragon and Nonpareil. English meant a typeface in the blackface style as well as about 14-point type. There was no relationship between the names and currently defined standards such as the inch.

Fournier, a typefounder in Paris, had published "Tables des Proportions qu'il faut observer entre les caracteres." He based his point system on the "cicero," which was 0.1648 of an inch, and he divided that into 12 points. Theodore de Vinne speculated in The Practice of Typography that in the intervening years Fournier had adjusted his point so that it would fit existing sizes of type as well as possible.

Ambroise Didot, typefounder and printer, improved on Fournier's system by harmonizing it with the existing French foot measurement, which was 12.7892 American inches. From 1770 on, the Didot point became the European standard. In 1795 the French government adopted the metric system. In 1879 Hermann Berthold revised the French Didot point standard to suit the metric system. George Bruce of New York proposed a system in 1882 whereby sizes increased by the sixth root of 2 so that each size was 112.2462 percent of the size before it and double the size seven sizes down.

Enter Nelson Hawks

Nelson C. Hawks (1841-1929) believed that he "invented" the point system. During his employment with foundry Marder, Luse, & Co., Hawks noted that pica type was 1/6 of an inch high but Nonpareil was half the size of pica. Hawks called Nonpareil 6 ...