Convert Pica (pica) to Span (Cloth) (span) instantly.
About these 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.
Span (Cloth) (span)
The span is a unit traditionally used in textile measurement, equal to the distance between the tip of the thumb and the tip of the little finger when the hand is fully extended, approximately 22.86 cm (9 inches). This anthropometric unit was widely used by weavers and cloth merchants to measure lengths of fabric quickly and intuitively. Its small scale made it convenient for practical applications where tape measures or rulers were unavailable. The span also appears in cultural and historical texts as a natural unit of human proportion. While largely obsolete today, it offers insight into pre-industrial textile practices and the anthropometric basis of early measurement systems.