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The CSS Chamber of Measures

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CSS-012 · Absolute

pc

The pica: twelve points at once, inherited from the composing rooms.

One pc is a pica: twelve points, a sixth of an inch. It was the ruler of newspaper layout — columns so many picas wide, leading so many points deep — and it entered CSS along with the rest of the typographic kit.

Today it may be the least-typed unit in the standard: those who print think in millimeters or points, those who design for screens think in pixels. The pica survives the way movable type survives — stored, oiled, and almost never called for.

6pc
1in
.coluna {
  width: 14pc;
}
Live demonstration: 6pc and 1in, the inch dealt out into six picas.