Picas to Feet (pc to ft)

1 pica equals 0.01388888889 feet (rounded).

1 pica = 0.01388888889 feet

How to convert picas to feet

To convert picas to feet, multiply the number of picas by 0.01388888889. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply feet by 72.

feet = picas × 0.01388888889

Example: 10 picas = 0.1388888889 feet.

About these units

Pica (pc)

Typography & screenCurrent unit

12 points, or one sixth of an inch (4.2333 mm). A printing measure, used in layout software.

Anyone who sets column widths in a layout program meets the pica, a printing measure divided into 12 points. Its size has varied by country. The French cicero equals 12 Didot points, about 4.512 mm. The American pica set by type founders in 1886 is about 4.217 mm (0.16604 inch), and the TeX pica is 400/2409 inch.

The figure used here is the desktop publishing pica, exactly one sixth of an inch or about 4.233 mm, which equals 12 of the 1/72 inch points. NIST lists the computer pica as an exact conversion. Six picas make an inch, and CSS uses the abbreviation pc for it. Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress write measurements as picas and points, so 5p6 means five and a half picas. Designers also count characters per pica to fit text: 11 point Helvetica has about 2.4, so a 30 pica line holds roughly 72 characters. The Wikipedia article does not explain where the name came from.

1 pica = 0.004233333333 meters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Pica (typography); Wikipedia: Point (typography); NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8

Foot (ft)

US & ImperialCurrent unit

12 inches. Defined as exactly 0.3048 meters. Still the standard unit for height, altitude in aviation and room dimensions in the US and UK.

Human anatomy supplied the idea: an adult foot is roughly 15 percent of body height. Ancient cultures turned that into standards, but not the same one. The Greek pous was about 302 mm, the standard Roman pes about 295.7 mm, and a Harappan foot of about 335 mm has been reported from the Indus Valley. Historically, a foot fell somewhere between about 250 and 335 mm. Charlemagne tried to standardize units around 790 with little lasting success, and in 1593 English law fixed the statute mile at 5,280 feet.

The modern foot dates from the 1959 International Yard and Pound Agreement, which defined the yard as exactly 0.9144 meter and so the foot as exactly 0.3048 meter; the UK adopted it on 1 January 1964. The US survey foot, defined in 1893 as 1200/3937 meter, was deprecated on 31 December 2022. Feet remain in everyday use for height and rooms in the US, and ISO shipping containers are defined in them. Aviation altitudes use them too: flight level 330 means 33,000 feet.

1 foot = 0.3048 meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Foot (unit); Wikipedia: Mile; NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8: conversion factors

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