Typometer information

Illustration of a typometer. The upper edge is marked with millimeters, half centimeters and centimeters; the lower edge is marked with a typographic point scale in groups of three, six and twelve points (one quarter cicero, half a cicero and one cicero)

Front and back of an old metal typometer with a hook for manual type setting.

Plastic typometers, from the 1980s, with different scales.

A typometer is a ruler which is usually divided in typographic points or ciceros on one of its sides and in centimeters or millimeters on the other, which was traditionally used in the graphic arts to inspect the measures of typographic materials.^[1] The most developed typometers could also measure the type size of a particular typeface, the leading of a text, the width of paragraph rules and other features of a printed text. This way, designers could study and reproduce the layout of a document.

One of the domains where the typometer was most widely used was the editorial offices of newspapers and magazines, where it was used along with other tools such as tracing paper and linen testers to define the layout of the pages of the publications, until the 1980s.^[2]

Typometers were initially made of wood or metal (in later times, of transparent plastic or acetate), and were produced in diverse shapes and sizes.^[3] Some of them presented several scales that were used to measure the properties of the text. Each scale corresponded with a type size or with a leading unit, if line blocks were divided by blank spaces. However, typometers could not be used to measure certain computer-generated type sizes, that could be set in fractions of points.^[4]

Due to the technological advancements in desktop publishing, that allow for a greater precision when setting the type size of texts, typometers have disappeared from most graphic design related professions. It keeps being used, even today, by traditional printers who still employ type metal.

^ Radics, Vilmos; Ritter, Aladár (1984). Make-up and typography. International Organization of Journalists. p. 13. ISBN 9789630231367. Retrieved 25 November 2016. The typometer is an instrument for measuring typographical denominations: type sizes, column width and depth, slugs, type area, etc.
^ Salaverría Aliaga, Ramón (2006). "El nuevo perfil profesional del periodista en el entorno digital" (PDF). Actas de las XIII Jornadas de Jóvenes Investigadores en Comunicación - Nuevos retos de la comunicación: Tecnología, empresa, sociedad. Zaragoza, Spain: Universidad San Jorge: 175. Retrieved 24 November 2016. Herramientas como la máquina de escribir con papel de calco, el tipómetro o el teletipo suenan hoy a piezas de museo. Pero debemos recordar que aún en los años 1980 eran el estándar tecnológico en las redacciones de los diarios.
^ "Les outils de l'atelier". Fornax éditeur (in French). Retrieved 22 November 2016.
^ "Fundamentos de tipometría". Unos Tipos Duros (in Spanish). Retrieved 22 November 2016.

[1] Radics, Vilmos; Ritter, Aladár (1984). Make-up and typography. International Organization of Journalists. p. 13. ISBN 9789630231367. Retrieved 25 November 2016. The typometer is an instrument for measuring typographical denominations: type sizes, column width and depth, slugs, type area, etc.

[2] Salaverría Aliaga, Ramón (2006). "El nuevo perfil profesional del periodista en el entorno digital" (PDF). Actas de las XIII Jornadas de Jóvenes Investigadores en Comunicación - Nuevos retos de la comunicación: Tecnología, empresa, sociedad. Zaragoza, Spain: Universidad San Jorge: 175. Retrieved 24 November 2016. Herramientas como la máquina de escribir con papel de calco, el tipómetro o el teletipo suenan hoy a piezas de museo. Pero debemos recordar que aún en los años 1980 eran el estándar tecnológico en las redacciones de los diarios.

[3] "Les outils de l'atelier". Fornax éditeur (in French). Retrieved 22 November 2016.

[4] "Fundamentos de tipometría". Unos Tipos Duros (in Spanish). Retrieved 22 November 2016.

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