View source for Cicero (typography)

{{Short description|Unit of measure used in typography}}
{{Infobox unit
| name     = Cicero
| standard = [[Typographic unit|typographic unit]]
| quantity = [[Physics:Length|length]]
| units1   = historical French units
| inunits1 = {{sfrac|6}}&nbsp;in
| units2   = typographic units
| inunits2 = 1.066 [[Pica (typography)|picas]]
| units3   = [[Metric system|metric]] (SI) units
| inunits3 = 4.51165812456&nbsp;[[Millimetre|mm]]| units4   = [[Imperial units|imperial]]/US&nbsp;units
| inunits4 = {{convert|4.51166667|mm|in|4|disp=out|lk=on}}
}}

A '''cicero''' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|ɪ|s|ər|oʊ}} is a unit of measure used in typography in Italy, {{wipe|France}} and other continental [[Earth:Europe|Europe]]an countries, first used by Pannartz and Sweynheim in 1468 for the edition of [[Biography:Cicero|Cicero]]'s  ''Epistulae ad Familiares''.<ref>{{Cite journal|author=Jacques André and Denis Girou|date=1999|title=Father Truchet, the typographic point, the Romain du roi, and tilings|url=http://www.switch.tug.org/TUGboat/tb20-1/tb62andr.pdf|journal=TUGboat|volume=20|access-date=2018-01-30|archive-date=2018-01-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180130204955/http://www.switch.tug.org/TUGboat/tb20-1/tb62andr.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> The font size thus acquired the name ''cicero''.

It is {{Frac|6}} of the historical French inch, and is divided into 12 points,<ref>{{Cite journal|author=Mario Tomiša, Damir Vusić, Marin Milković|date=September 2013|title=The impact of the historical development of typography on modern classification of typefaces|journal=Tehnicki Vjesnik / Technical Gazette|volume=20|pages=905|citeseerx=10.1.1.944.672}}</ref> known in English as French points or [[Point (typography)#Didot|Didot point]]s. The unit of the cicero is similar to an English [[Pica (typography)|pica]], although the French inch was slightly larger than the English [[Inch|inch]]. There are about 1.066 picas to a cicero; a pica is 4.23333333&nbsp;mm and a cicero is 4.51165812456&nbsp;mm.

Cicero (and the points derived from cicero) was used in the early days of typography in continental Europe.  In modern times, all computers use pica (and the points derived from pica) as font size measurement – alongside millimeters in countries using the [[Metric system|metric system]] – for line length and [[Engineering:Paper size|paper size]] measurement.

==References==
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{{Typography terms}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cicero (typography)}}
[[Category:Units of length]]



{{Sourceattribution|Cicero (typography)}}