Convert Centimeter (cm) to Pica (pica) instantly.
About these units
Centimeter (cm)
The centimeter, 1/100 of a meter, strikes a balance between precision and ease of communication, making it indispensable in everyday life. Its size is well-matched to human-scale objects—furniture, body dimensions, school supplies, and clothing—so people in metric countries regularly estimate or visualize lengths in centimeters without tools. Many professions rely heavily on centimeters, including medicine (wound sizes, tumor dimensions), tailoring, building trades, and interior design. In science, centimeters serve as a practical unit for measurements too small for meters but too large for millimeters. Biologists, for example, may measure specimen sizes or growth stages in centimeters. Its intuitive scale and decimal alignment with meters ensure that both laypeople and professionals can convert easily among related units.
Pica (pica)
A pica is another typographic unit, equal to 12 points, or 1/6 of an inch, making it larger and more suited to structural layout than to fine detail. Picas are commonly used to measure text blocks, column widths, margins, and line lengths in print and digital page design. The pica originated alongside the point in printing traditions stretching back to the 18th and 19th centuries. It offered a convenient intermediate scale—small enough for precise adjustments but large enough for practical page design. When newspapers became widespread, picas helped designers rapidly calculate column grids and organize dense printed pages. Even as publishing tools evolved into software like Adobe InDesign and LaTeX, picas remain deeply integrated into the workflow of book designers, typographers, and professional printers. They are part of a system that allows page elements to be arranged with precision, ensuring that every visual aspect of a document aligns harmoniously.