Print Typography Units Converter

Print typography measures type and layout in a different unit system than the web does. The Print Typography Units Converter converts between the five units a print, prepress, or desktop-publishing workflow actually uses: points (pt), picas (pc), inches (in), millimeters (mm), and centimeters (cm). Enter a value, pick its unit, and the tool instantly shows the equivalent in every other unit.

How the units relate

Print measurement is built on one fixed chain of exact ratios — the modern PostScript/DTP point, used by every current design application (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Word, etc.):

• 1 inch = 72 points
• 1 pica = 12 points, so 1 inch = 6 picas
• 1 inch = 25.4 millimeters (the international inch) = 2.54 centimeters

Everything else falls out of that chain: a point is 1/72 inch (≈0.3528mm), a pica is 1/6 inch (≈4.2333mm), and so on. Because these are fixed physical ratios, the conversion never depends on a screen, a DPI setting, or a font — 12pt is exactly 1 pica everywhere, on paper or in software.

How to use it

1. Enter a Value.
2. Choose its Unit — points, picas, inches, millimeters, or centimeters.
3. Read the equivalents for all five units in the results table, ready to copy or download as CSV.

Typical uses: converting a font size or leading given in points to millimeters for a print spec sheet, converting a page margin from inches to picas for a layout grid, or checking how many points a metric measurement (mm/cm) works out to before setting type.

Why not px, em, or rem?

Those are CSS/screen units, not print units, and they behave differently: a CSS pixel has no fixed physical size (it depends on device pixel density), and CSS em/rem are relative to an element's or the page root's font-size rather than a printed measurement. Converting between them requires a DPI assumption and a font-size context — see the Pixel, REM & EM Converter for that conversion.

What about "em" in print typography?

Traditional print typography also uses the word "em" — but it means something narrower than CSS em. A print em is simply the current type size: in 12pt type, 1 em = 12pt; in 24pt type, 1 em = 24pt. It scales with font size but isn't relative to a parent element in a document tree the way CSS em is. An "en" is half an em (historically the width of the letter "n"). Since a print em is just the point size restated, you can get it directly from this converter: whatever value you enter in points is one em at that size — no separate field needed.

Is this accurate for print production?

Yes — the ratios used (72pt/inch, 12pt/pica, 25.4mm/inch) are the standard, universally-adopted print measurement constants, not approximations. Results are rounded to 4 decimal places for display.

This tool runs entirely in your browser; no values are sent anywhere.