Digital typography? Pixels to points?

Report · May 30, 2023

Hello

I've been given some design guidelines but it looks like it's for web as the font size are in pixels and line-height (which I believe is the leading) is not the numbers I'm used to. (For example, the body copy is font size 15px, line-height 2 or 1.6 and letter-spacing is 0.)

Is there a way in Indesign to change the typography units to pixels? Or a way to convert these numbers to points? Or do I need to use a different software to work in these units??

Thanks in advance

Report · May 30, 2023

You can set the base/default units to anything you like (inches, mm, picas, etc.) But wait, there's more — you can enter any value in any field by specifying it, and InDesign will accept it and convert to the default units. That is, if you have a doc set up in mm, and have an element you want to be one inch wide, you can enter "1in" in the field and ID will automatically convert it to mm. Units are set in Edit | Preferences | Units.

If you set the document up for "Web" in Document Setup, it will default to px for measurements.

Type is tricky in that "pixels" and "points" aren't really parallel units, and (I think) ID handles type only in points. In experimenting, I find that setting a style to px maps directly to points — entering "10px" in the command bar changes to 10 pt. So there you go. Set the doc to px, and work in points==pixels.

However, keep in mind that ID isn't really suited to design at the pixel scale. It has the measurement and the features, but many users have found that, say, trying to design a 320x120 web banner, using those measurements, leads to crummy, pixelated results. The usual practice is to work to a scaled layout (say, 6.4x2.4 inches in that example) and then export to the final size, or export larger and scale it down using Photoshop's more graceful reduction.

Report · May 30, 2023

Thank you! I understand what you mean.. it looks like px and pt are similar but not accurate as you say. I'll think of an alternative solution

Report · May 31, 2023

Hi @keii24515601 , InDesign lets you define the size of a point as inches in the Units & Increments Preferences. It can be anything between 60 and 80 points per inch, by default it is set to 72 pts/inch. Pixels and Points both equal 1/72" as long as you leave the point size preference as 72.

Photoshop has a Unit preference for Type, which can be set to Pixels, Points, or Millimeters, so it lets you explicitly set type as Pixels. As long as you keep the default point size preference as 72 points per inch, InDesign’s point size will match Photoshop’s pixel size. The two apps have slightly different anti-aliasing for text, but that doesn’t affect actual size.

Here I’ve set some 24 pt type on a 500px x 300px InDesign page, with the point size preference set to 72. If I export it to a JPEG with the Resolution set to 72ppi, it will open in PS as a matching 500px x 300px image

If I open the JPEG and set some more text as 24px in Photoshop, I can see that the text sizes match:

Report · Jun 12, 2023

Thank you!!!

Report · May 31, 2023

Rob's answer should provide some clarity.

ID is not necessarily the wrong tool, but there's sort of a gulf between its methods and most pixel-based output. You have to fudge and adjust and adapt to get results that are simple in, say, Photoshop.

We see a lot of very frustrated users here who are trying to do small pixel work by setting things up PS-style and getting poor results. You have to use ID differently - from both PS and its normal page-layout mode - to get good pixel based output.

Report · Jun 12, 2023

Thank you so much!!!!