font size conversion broken

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
September 25, 2018
3 replies
1412 views

I created a design in Photoshop CC 2017 at a resolution of 72 dpi, with my units set to pixels. I also created a typography guide listing the font styles and sizes in pixels. I was asked to provide font sizes in points, but discovered that if I try changing the the units, Photoshop interprets the font sizes in points exactly the same as the size in pixels - so a font that was 15 pixels is shown as being 15 points, and a 54 pixel font is shown as being 54 points. The text blocks are lined up on a grid, and aren't being resized, so these measurements are just plain wrong. What's going on, and is there a way to fix this?

At present I have no faith at all in any of the font scaling information Photoshop is giving me. When I feed these values into conversion tables the output is completely different.

This topic has been closed for replies.

mglush

Community Expert

Hi!

Something that you need to remember is that there are 72 points to an inch. So if your resolution is 72 pixels per inch then it would be a 1 to 1 ratio. This would mean that 15 pixes = 15 points. I think Barbara's suggestion above is a good one. Try creating a document at a different resolution and you will see a difference in size and scale. Is your style guide for the web? Or is it for print? If it's for print then using a resolution of 300 should be used and you will see a dramatic difference between pixels and points.

What kind of conversion table are you using and what are you using it for?

Let us know how we can help you further,

Michelle

C

Christopher Liam IveyAuthor

Inspiring

Dear Michelle and Barbara,

That could well be. I think the confusion for me is that most conversion tables show a point as being 1.3333 pixels, which would make the 1:1 conversion factor in Photoshop just plain wrong - which is what I was getting at.

However, it is possible that some browser applications render at 96 dpi, which would account for the difference I'm seeing.

D Fosse

Community Expert

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Christopher+Liam+Ivey wrote
most conversion tables show a point as being 1.3333 pixels

Point is a physical size unit, 1/72 inch. That's the full and complete definition of a point. It goes back to lead type.

The only relation points have to pixels is through the ppi (pixels per inch) value. That's the connection, and that's why document resolution affects font sizes.

barbara_a7746676

Community Expert

That's the way Photoshop works. The only situation when Photoshop treats one pixel as on point is when an mage is 72 pixels per inch. If you change the resolution of your image to something other than 72 ppi, you'll see that is no longer the case.

C

Christopher Liam IveyAuthor

Inspiring

By the way, why is the forum server emailing me in Japanese? I don't see any language settings for this in my account...

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