Twip
1/20 of a point (1/1,440 inch). Used in the Rich Text Format specification and some software.
1 twip = 0.00001763888889 meters (approximately).
About the twip
A contraction of twentieth of a point, the twip is a deliberately tiny unit meant for software that wants whole-number layout. Wikipedia gives it as 1/20 point, or 1/1440 inch, about 17.64 micrometers (0.01764 mm). That inch fraction only works if the point is the desktop publishing point of 1/72 inch, which is the definition the figure used here assumes.
Visual Basic 6 and earlier used twips as the default unit, and Microsoft's Rich Text Format uses them to exchange documents between platforms. OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice take it as their base length unit, and Symbian OS used it to scale bitmaps. Flash is a trap: its internal twips are really 1/20 of a logical pixel, which makes them three quarters of a true twip. Wikipedia's article also words the name two ways, as a twentieth of a point or of an inch point, and notes that it lacks citations.
Sources: Wikipedia: Twip; Wikipedia: Point (typography)
Twip conversion chart
1 twip expressed in every other length unit:
| Unit | 1 twip |
|---|---|
| Meters | 0.00001763888889 |
| Kilometers | 1.763888889×10⁻⁸ |
| Centimeters | 0.001763888889 |
| Millimeters | 0.01763888889 |
| Inches | 0.0006944444444 |
| Feet | 0.00005787037037 |
| Yards | 0.00001929012346 |
| Miles | 1.096029742×10⁻⁸ |
| Micrometers | 17.63888889 |
| Nanometers | 17,638.88889 |
| Nautical Miles | 9.524238061×10⁻⁹ |
| Pixels (CSS) | 0.06666666667 |
| Light-years | 1.864432027×10⁻²¹ |
| Picometers | 17,638,888.89 |
| Femtometers | 17,638,888,889 |
| Decimeters | 0.0001763888889 |
| Hectometers | 1.763888889×10⁻⁷ |
| Decameters | 0.000001763888889 |
| Thou | 0.6944444444 |
| Points | 0.05 |
| Picas | 0.004166666667 |
| Astronomical Units | 1.179086895×10⁻¹⁶ |
| Light-seconds | 5.883700013×10⁻¹⁴ |
| Light-minutes | 9.806166688×10⁻¹⁶ |
| Light-hours | 1.634361115×10⁻¹⁷ |
| Parsecs | 5.71637458×10⁻²² |
| Megaparsecs | 5.71637458×10⁻²⁸ |
| Angstroms | 176,388.8889 |
| Fathoms | 0.000009645061728 |
| Cable Lengths | 9.524238061×10⁻⁸ |
| Leagues | 3.653432473×10⁻⁹ |
| Nautical Leagues | 3.17474602×10⁻⁹ |
| Furlongs | 8.768237935×10⁻⁸ |
| Chains | 8.768237935×10⁻⁷ |
| Rods | 0.000003507295174 |
| Links | 0.00008768237935 |
| Hands | 0.0001736111111 |
| Barleycorns | 0.002083333333 |
| Palms | 0.0002314814815 |
| Spans | 0.00007716049383 |
| Cubits | 0.00003858024691 |
| Ells | 0.00001543209877 |
| US Survey Feet | 0.00005787025463 |
| US Survey Miles | 1.09602755×10⁻⁸ |
| Stadia | 9.186921296×10⁻⁸ |
| Roman Inches | 0.0007170280036 |
| Roman Feet | 0.00005959084084 |
| Roman Cubits | 0.00003972722723 |
| Roman Paces | 0.00001191816817 |
| Roman Stadia | 9.534534535×10⁻⁸ |
| Roman Miles | 1.191816817×10⁻⁸ |
| Roman Leagues | 7.945445445×10⁻⁹ |
| Greek Feet | 0.00005512152778 |
| Royal Cubits | 0.0000335978836 |
| Egyptian Palms | 0.0002351851852 |
| Egyptian Fingers | 0.0009407407407 |
| Khet | 3.35978836×10⁻⁷ |
| Biblical Cubits | 0.00003266460905 |
| Sabbath Days' Journeys | 1.633230453×10⁻⁸ |
| Sun | 0.0005820833333 |
| Shaku | 0.00005820833333 |
| Ken | 0.000009701388889 |
| Jō | 0.000005820833333 |
| Chō | 1.616898148×10⁻⁷ |
| Ri (Japanese) | 4.491383745×10⁻⁹ |
| Fen (Chinese) | 0.005291666667 |
| Cun (Chinese) | 0.0005291666667 |
| Chi (Chinese) | 0.00005291666667 |
| Zhang (Chinese) | 0.000005291666667 |
| Li (Chinese) | 3.527777778×10⁻⁸ |
| Vershoks | 0.0003968253968 |
| Arshins | 0.0000248015873 |
| Sazhens | 0.000008267195767 |
| Versts | 1.653439153×10⁻⁸ |
| Lignes | 0.007819248889 |
| Pouces | 0.0006516040741 |
| Pieds Du Roi | 0.00005430033951 |
| Toises | 0.000009050056584 |
| Lieues | 4.525028292×10⁻⁹ |
| Varas | 0.00002110167351 |
| Leguas | 3.165251027×10⁻⁹ |
| Wa (Thai) | 0.000008819444444 |
| Sen (Thai) | 4.409722222×10⁻⁷ |
| Scandinavian Mil | 1.763888889×10⁻⁹ |
More Typography & screen units
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