Convert typographic points to centimeters

One point is 0.0353 cm. A point is 1/72 of an inch, and an inch is exactly 2.54 cm.[1]

The formula is centimeters = points × 2.54 ÷ 72. A 12-point font gives 12 × 2.54 ÷ 72 = 0.4233 cm, and a 72-point font gives exactly 2.54 cm, because 72 points make one inch.

If you think in inches, the same numbers are simpler still: 12 pt is 1/6 inch and 72 pt is 1 inch. The reverse direction, from a measurement to a font size, is handled by the centimeters to points converter.

The typographic point is the unit used for type size in every word processor and layout app. Word, InDesign and web browsers all use the point of 1/72 inch, and the CSS specification defines the pt unit the same way.[1] Twelve points make a pica, the unit page layout apps use for column widths, and the pica to px converter turns picas into pixels.

The centimeter is a hundredth of a meter and the unit a metric ruler shows next to its millimeter ticks. Because the point is defined through the inch and the inch through the centimeter, the conversion is exact. For inches on their own, there is the cm to inches converter.

On screen, the same type is measured in pixels instead: at the standard 96 pixels per inch, 12 points is 16 pixels. The pt to px converter does that calculation.

Font size measures the box each character sits in, not the letter itself. In metal type it was the height of the metal body the letter was cast on. In a digital font it is the em square, which the designer fills with the letters plus the space above and below them, so the point size says nothing direct about how tall the printed letters are.[3]

Every font file stores the height of its capital letters in its metrics table.[4] We read it from the fonts that ship with Windows 11: capitals take up 71.6% of the size in Arial, 72.7% in Verdana, 66.2% in Times New Roman and 63.2% in Calibri. A 72 pt heading in Arial therefore has capitals 1.82 cm tall, while the same size in Calibri gives 1.60 cm. For body text between 10 and 14 pt, letter heights are easier to read in millimeters, and the pt to mm converter has that table.

That gap matters for headlines, posters and cut vinyl lettering, where the order states the height of the letters. If you know the letter height you need, the centimeters to points converter turns it into a font size.

The word “point” covers three units that are close in length but not identical. The Point type selector below the fields switches the calculation between them.

PostScript (DTP) is the point of exactly 1/72 inch used by Word, Adobe apps and browsers. It is selected by default, so a size copied from any office app converts without changing anything.

Printer's (TeX) is the older American point of 1/72.27 inch. Donald Knuth kept it for TeX, so in a LaTeX document pt means this point and bp means the PostScript one.[3] A 12pt LaTeX document therefore sets its type 0.4218 cm tall rather than 0.4233 cm.

Didot is the point of traditional continental European typesetting. The converter uses 0.376065 mm, the value of the German standard DIN 16507-1 and of the TeX unit dd.[3] You will only need it when a size comes from older German, French or Eastern European print documentation.