Intypesettingandprinting,thetextsizeformedbytheheightandwidthofthetextiscalculatedbyauniqueunitofmeasurement,namelypointsandciceros.Moderncommonlyusedpoint(pt)asaunit.
Fournier,France,inventedthepointsystemmeasurementsystemin1675,whichwaslaterimprovedbytheParisianfontmakerFirminDidotoestablishamoderntypesettingmeasurementsystem,andthenDidoimprovedthepointsystemThesystemisgraduallyadoptedthroughoutEurope.Nowadays,theDiddopointsystemismainlyusedinEurope,andtheBritish-AmericanpointsystemismainlyusedinEnglandandtheUnitedStates.The"points"inthesetwopointsystemsarethesmallestunitsofmeasurement.
Inconventionaltypesetting,thefontsizeisin"dots".Thesizeofthemovabletypeiscalledthe"fontsize",andthewidthoftheletteriscalledthe"wordwidth",
1point(Diduopoint)=0.376mm=1.07UKPoint=0.0148inch=0.00123inch.
1point(BritishAmericanpoint)=0.3527mm=1/72inch(pointinOffice)
"Pound"referstothetransliterationofpointPronunciation,thecorrectChinesetranslationshouldbe"点"or"点数".
Usually,howmany"pounds"youhearincertainwordsarecommonnames,andprofessionalscallthem"points".Pointisabbreviatedaspt,forexample:4pt,whichmeans4points.Soeveryonemustbecarefulnottotranslatetheweightunit"pound"asatextunit.