The TEX ruler

This is the TEX ruler, a measuring device for typographical designers working with TEX. It includes ordinary rulers in inches, centimeters, and picas. It can be used to measure font sizes, baseline distances, and rule weights. The design is based on a ruler by Inge Eijkhout, implementation in TEX is by Victor Eijkhout.

The TEX ruler is shareware: you can give it away, but you are not allowed to ask money for it, regardless of the medium you use. You are not allowed to cut this manual page from the source, dvi, or postscript file. If you want to show your appreciation, send a contribution to the address below.

How to format and print this file

This file will give you three pages. Most likely the second one cannot be handled by your printer, but I’ve included it for completeness. At the top of the source file, 3 fonts are declared. Please change the CM fonts to something more pretty, eg Helvetica.

How to use the TEX ruler

Rulers. Use them like ordinary rulers. It is suggested that you print the TEX ruler on transparent plastic and cut the edges along the rulers.

Baseline distances. Put the top line along the baseline of some line of text. Then see in what column the other lines of text line up.

Font sizes: cap height. Take an uppercase letter such as ‘K’ or ‘H’. Find the line with its font name, or use the first line. See what box on that line it fits in best, with the character completely between the lines. Read out the magnification and size of the font. Alternately check on all lines which box fits best, then read out the size.

General remark: all lines have a width of .05 millimeter. This is less than the dot width of a 300dpi laser printer, so beware of some inaccuracies. Also your printer driver may introduce inaccuracies.

Victor Eijkhout Department of Mathematics University of California Los Angeles, CA 90024 USA

Copyright 1990-96 by Victor Eijkhout

inch 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 5_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45} 6_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37} 7_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32} 8_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28} 9_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25} 10_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22} 11_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20} 12_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18} 13_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17} 14_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16} 15_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15} 16_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14} 17_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13} 18_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12} 20_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11} 22_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10} 25_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9} 30_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7}

Baseline distances Cap heights

0 2.44 10 half 2.67 10.95 1 2.93 12 2 3.51 14.4 3 4.22 17.28 4 5.06 20.74 5 6.07 24.88 \frac{cmr10 cmbx10 cmss10 cmmi10}{magstep mm point size}
0 2.14 10 half 2.35 10.95 1 2.57 12 2 3.09 14.4 3 3.71 17.28 4 4.45 20.74 5 5.34 24.88 \frac{cmtt10 cmff10}{magstep mm point size}
0 1.70 7 half 1.86 7.67 1 2.04 8.4 2 2.45 10.08 3 2.94 12.10 4 3.54 14.52 5 4.24 17.42 \frac{cmr7 cmbx7 cmmi7}{magstep mm point size}
0 1.21 5 half 1.33 5.48 1 1.46 6 2 1.75 7.2 3 2.10 8.64 4 2.52 10.37 5 3.03 12.44 \frac{cmr5 cmbx5 cmmi5}{magstep mm point size}
{5 \atop 1.22} {6 \atop 1.46} {7 \atop 1.70} {8 \atop 1.95} {9 \atop 2.19} {10 \atop 2.44} {11 \atop 2.68} {12 \atop 2.93} {13 \atop 3.17} {14 \atop 3.41}  \overline{point size mm}
{15 \atop 3.66} {16 \atop 3.90} {17 \atop 4.15} {18 \atop 4.39} {19 \atop 4.64} {20 \atop 4.88} {21 \atop 5.12} {22 \atop 5.37} {23 \atop 5.61} {24 \atop 5.86}  \overline{point size mm}
{26 \atop 6.34} {28 \atop 6.83} {30 \atop 7.32} {32 \atop 7.81} {34 \atop 8.30} {36 \atop 8.79} {38 \atop 9.28} {40 \atop 9.76} {42 \atop 10.25} {44 \atop 10.74} \overline{point size mm}
{46 \atop 11.23} {48 \atop 11.72} {50 \atop 12.21} {52 \atop 12.69} {54 \atop 13.18} {56 \atop 13.67} {58 \atop 14.16} {60 \atop 14.65} {62 \atop 15.14} {64 \atop 15.63} \overline{point size mm}

pica 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Conversion of units

1in  = 72.27 pt
1in = 72 bp
1in  = 25.4 mm
1157dd = 1238 pt
1pt = 65536 sp
pt  pc dd  cc bp mm  in
pt  1 .0833  .351 .0138
pc  12  1  4.218 .166
dd  1 .0833  .376 .0148
cc  12  1  4.513 .1777
bp  1 .383 .0139
mm  2.845 .237 2.659 .222 2.835  1 .0394
in  72.27 6.0225 67.54 5.628 72 25.4  1

The TEX Ruler

Design: Inge and Victor Eijkhout 1990–96

Rule weights

mm_{0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45 0.50 0.55 0.60 0.65 0.70 0.75 0.80 0.85 0.90 0.95}  1.00 1.25 1.50 1.75 2.00 2.25 2.50 2.75 3.00 3.25 3.50 3.75 4.00 4.25 4.50 4.75 5.00  pt_{0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0 9.5 10.0 10.5 11.0 11.5 12.0 12.5 13.0 13.5 14.0 14.5}

cm 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

inch 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 5_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45} 6_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37} 7_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32} 8_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28} 9_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25} 10_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22} 11_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20} 12_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18} 13_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17} 14_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16} 15_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15} 16_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14} 17_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13} 18_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12} 20_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11} 22_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10} 25_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9} 30_{1 2 3 4 5 6 7}

Baseline distances Cap heights

0 2.44 10 half 2.67 10.95 1 2.93 12 2 3.51 14.4 3 4.22 17.28 4 5.06 20.74 5 6.07 24.88 \frac{cmr10 cmbx10 cmss10 cmmi10}{magstep mm point size}
0 2.14 10 half 2.35 10.95 1 2.57 12 2 3.09 14.4 3 3.71 17.28 4 4.45 20.74 5 5.34 24.88 \frac{cmtt10 cmff10}{magstep mm point size}
0 1.70 7 half 1.86 7.67 1 2.04 8.4 2 2.45 10.08 3 2.94 12.10 4 3.54 14.52 5 4.24 17.42 \frac{cmr7 cmbx7 cmmi7}{magstep mm point size}
0 1.21 5 half 1.33 5.48 1 1.46 6 2 1.75 7.2 3 2.10 8.64 4 2.52 10.37 5 3.03 12.44 \frac{cmr5 cmbx5 cmmi5}{magstep mm point size}

pica 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Conversion of units

1in  = 72.27 pt
1in = 72 bp
1in  = 25.4 mm
1157dd = 1238 pt
1pt = 65536 sp
pt  pc dd  cc bp mm  in
pt  1 .0833  .351 .0138
pc  12  1  4.218 .166
dd  1 .0833  .376 .0148
cc  12  1  4.513 .1777
bp  1 .383 .0139
mm  2.845 .237 2.659 .222 2.835  1 .0394
in  72.27 6.0225 67.54 5.628 72 25.4  1

The TEX Ruler

Design: Inge and Victor Eijkhout 1990–96

Rule weights

mm_{0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45} 0.50 0.60 0.70 0.80 0.90 1.00 1.10 1.20 1.30 1.40 1.50  pt_{0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 5.5 6.0 6.5 7.0 7.5 8.0 8.5 9.0 9.5}

cm 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23