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DPChallenge Forums >> Photography Discussion >> What the hell is a pica?
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11/13/2016 04:56:29 PM · #1
Did a senior shoot yesterday and the parents showed me a directive from the school that the portrait should be "8 x 10 picas" for submission to the yearbook. Googling is not really helping me understand how I should crop it. Is there a setting for pica in PS CS6?
11/13/2016 05:37:55 PM · #2
A pica is a typographic unit of measure corresponding to 1/72 of a foot or to 1/6 of an inch. The pica contains 12 point units of measure. The contemporary pica used in DTP systems like Adobe InDesign and earlier in Aldus Pagemaker is 1/72 of a foot, i.e. 4.233 mm or 0.166 in.

Conversion

8 x 10 picas (computer) = 128 x 160 pixels
11/13/2016 05:47:41 PM · #3
wow. I thought they were small rodents.
11/13/2016 05:50:50 PM · #4
Originally posted by tnun:

wow. I thought they were small rodents.


They're also small rodents. Have to be careful that you differentiate between the two :-) Otherwise I've hardly ever seen or used the terms since my days in Advertising, doing design and layout in Pagemaker. Holy hell do I ever feel old!

Message edited by author 2016-11-13 17:52:35.
11/13/2016 05:58:26 PM · #5
Originally posted by tnun:

wow. I thought they were small rodents.

You are jokingly referring to a Pika. More closely related to a rabbit, than a mouse or rat.
11/13/2016 08:54:48 PM · #6
Pica can also refer to the size of a fixed-width font of a typewriter -- a pica font will have 10 characters/inch while an "elite" font will have 12 ... most commonly found on the type "balls" used by IBM "Selectric" typewriters.
11/13/2016 09:35:01 PM · #7
Originally posted by smardaz:

Did a senior shoot yesterday and the parents showed me a directive from the school that the portrait should be "8 x 10 picas" for submission to the yearbook. Googling is not really helping me understand how I should crop it. Is there a setting for pica in PS CS6?


Look a last year's yearbook to get a feel for it. They're using that particular unit of measure because that's what they are using to lay out the copy for printing. They're saying the want it ready to drop in -- they aren't taking time to resize the shots.
11/13/2016 11:23:10 PM · #8
Pica is also an eating disorder. :-P
11/13/2016 11:58:05 PM · #9
Originally posted by kirbic:

Pica is also an eating disorder. :-P

Dang, I should have mentioned that -- I've actually encountered that kind in my work as well as the other ...
11/14/2016 12:23:12 AM · #10
Originally posted by snaffles:

Originally posted by tnun:

wow. I thought they were small rodents.

They're also small rodents. Have to be careful that you differentiate between the two :-) Otherwise I've hardly ever seen or used the terms since my days in Advertising, doing design and layout in Pagemaker. Holy hell do I ever feel old!

Yah, me too. VERY old. I was doing layout and graphics for a local printer with the original PageMaker from Aldus, 1.0 or whatever it was. That was ages ago.

BUT.... A "pica" is never a rodent; that's the "paca" :-)

ETA: I just realized there's a "pika", which is a small, rabbit-like mammal. That must be the confusion :-)

Message edited by author 2016-11-14 00:52:16.
11/14/2016 01:08:11 AM · #11
what pica can do:graphic

11/14/2016 02:20:27 AM · #12
Originally posted by tnun:

what pica can do:graphic


nooooo.....
11/14/2016 02:25:20 AM · #13
You've probably noticed that I've always used pica for my DPC entries.

pica picta
11/14/2016 09:20:18 AM · #14


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