customizable rulers for other units and curves [update ••]

[Oval]

intelligent_rulers_upd2.afdesign

 

Because some are waiting tooooooooo long for better rulers including a “change origin point” feature,

we made a flexible ruler for dm, Berthold points, Pica points, Didot points, DTP Cicero and other units that you can change easily for your own needs just in seconds. Even if you need furlong, light-nanoseconds, Fournier point … no problem.

 

Now you can have many rulers with different units at the same time. And they even can measure curves. Some backgrounds can be found somewhere.

 

Have fun and help to improve Affinity apps.  

 

 

The old ones:   intelligent_rulers.afdesign  intelligent_rulers_upd.afdesign

[catlover]

Thank you sooooo much, Oval,

This is really very useful.

I tried out the UPD version, but it seems the cm+mm ruler doesn't work, the others do.

Perhaps I'm using it wrong.

Could you post a short how-to ??

Thanks again, excellent work !

[Oval]

On 25. Februar 2017 at 3:43 PM, catlover said:

I tried out the UPD version, but it seems the cm+mm ruler doesn't work, the others do.

 

That one is a group. You can use the “Vector Crop Tool” to make it bigger/longer or smaller/shorter or just ungroup it. Or use the “Text Tool” (and copy & paste) to change the lenght or the form and colours of the divisions/strokes and digits. Use “Underline” or “Strikethrough” if you need lines.

 

They are also useful for students to understand and see (at a glance) the difference between 48 Berthold points, 48 Didot points, 48 DTP points, 48 Pica points, … Cicero, furlong, fathom, cat, inch, light-nanosecond, mm, dm, feet … also useful to combine many units never been combined before, useful to check (the differences) of book layouts that use old/wrong units, … to print some on a transparent film for easy checks which dimensions/units of an old book were used, …

 

AD was “created for professionals”, so sorry that not every detail is explained. Just ask. The rulers were made in less than five minutes and were made to encourage others to improve them/make new ones. We took no time to design them. Sorry for using Arial. Some zeros could be deleted, better stroke glyphs could be found … many things to improve. But since there was no time, …

 

 

 

 

Hopefully Serif will create the best rulers (with two scales, …) on earth. Please before we have gone.

[herbz]

Oval, you Legend! Super useful!!!

[Patrick Connor]

I think that Pica need to be a ruler unit in Designer and Publisher.

 

@Oval 

Please can you clarify one thing about this attachment (currently intelligent_rulers_upd2.afdesign)?  The line called "DTP Cicero" is surely "DTP Pica", being 6 units per (English) Inch. [This is standard "Postscript Pica" not American Pica or French Pica .] "Cicero" is, as far as I know, always defined in terms of the larger french Royal inch, or is "DTP Cicero" a term I have not come across meaning the same as "Pica"?

 

Furthermore, Do people still use use the [French Royal ] 'Cicero' and Didot ? That customer in the other thread seems to want to claim something back for France, but is it common?

Indeed, should we adopt other ruler units like the CSS standard Q point 1/4 of a millimetre? Cicero and Didot (or Didot point) are in my opinion less useful than Picas, but could be included, if so what else.

Quote

NOTE: We used to have both Cicero and Didot in DrawPlus rulers, but looking at the code right now DrawPlus used an incorrect value for Ciceros of 4.5363 mm and defined Didot in terms of 1/12 of  a Cicero, so 0.378 mm. Neither of those numbers is correct and no customer ever told us they are wrong in the 10+ years they were in various releases of DrawPlus ......!

I understand these are the values

 - French Royal Inch is 375,000/13853 mm (approx 27.07 mm or 1.066 English inch)

 - Cicero  [cd] is 62500/13853 mm (approx 4.511658 mm or 0.1776 English inch)

 -- which is 1/6 of a French Royal Inch (and 12 Didot Points).

 - Didot Point [d] is 62500/(12*1979*7) mm =  15625/41559 mm (approx 0.376 mm or 0.0148 English inch)

 -- which is 1/72 of a French Royal. 

Does anyone disagree or have an opinion on rulers they themselves want?

 

[Patrick Connor]

Oh yes and I forgot to say, great file attachment and interesting method for "measuring" any path

[Oval]

On 18. Januar 2018 at 6:01 PM, Patrick Connor said:

@Oval 

Please can you clarify one thing about this attachment (currently intelligent_rulers_upd2.afdesign)?  The line called "DTP Cicero" is surely "DTP Pica", being 6 units per (English) Inch. [This is standard "Postscript Pica" not American Pica or French Pica .] "Cicero" is, as far as I know, always defined in terms of the larger french Royal inch, or is "DTP Cicero" a term I have not come across meaning the same as "Pica"?

 

Some teachers, typographers and designers still use Cicero, Doppelcicero, Nonpareille, Petit, Rheinländer, Palestine, … 

DTP Cicero is not DTP Pica and

DTP was used just to ensure that (not the old Didot point but) the “actual” unit is meant. Experts see at a glance: 1(0) DTP Cicero = 12(0) DTP points (compare the last two rulers).

 

HTH

[Oval]

On 18. Januar 2018 at 6:48 PM, Patrick Connor said:

Oh yes and I forgot to say, great file attachment and interesting method for "measuring" any path

 

Is there a better method in AD for “measuring” any path?  Unfortunately, still no measurement indicator. :-(  :-(  :-(  Would not need much time …