For the purposes of my work it makes sense to use round values of font sizes in millimeters. Thankfully, unlike Word, Writer allows you to input a value in millimeters, but it automatically converts it to points and the input field itself always displays a value in points.
My question is whether there is a way to make the font size input field display a value in millimeters or some other unit other than points. I would like to be able to click a paragraph and instantly see “4 mm” instead of “11,3 pt” or some other arbitrary number, from which it’s impossible to guess the number of millimeters.
Is this possible, or perhaps could this be implemented in the future?
I think tdf#72662 discusses it.
Wouldn’t a simple table be a workaround? There aren’t many mm sizes at normal paragraph font sizes.
ConvertMMtoPt.ods (21.5 KB)
If you use paragraph and character styles in a template then you don’t need to know the pt size equivalent to metric as you just choose the relevant style.
1 Like
Mixing units, especially non-SI units, tends to result in very unpleasant and long-lasting headaches. One such example is the use of fixed line spacing, which is once again measured in millimeters. However, to ensure the proper display of characters, line spacing needs to be set to a value greater or equal to the font size. Something much easier said than done when both of these properties are measured in different and completely unrelated units.
I am aware that there are workarounds, but I wasn’t looking for a workaround. The issue you linked is 12 years old. Seems like that will not be solving this problem anytime soon.
What I had in mind was more like official support for other units as right now, Writer seems to be converting and rounding the values, which kind of defeats the whole purpose of allowing values to be input in millimeters.
I’ve seen people mention that it’s the way Word does it, when the thing that makes Writer so amazing is that it isn’t Word. Besides, CSS as well as many creative FOSS applications have this functionality. And I don’t see any good reasons to force users to use points here, when you can select a different unit for everything else. Not to mention, it would be ridiculous to instead measure everything in points, as I have unfortunately seen people do.
P.S.: When I said round values in millimeters, I meant “nice/convenient”, including fractional values (e.g. 3,5; 4; 4;2…) not just integer multiples. It would be even more convenient to use tenths of millimeters.
It is also possible to set point, pica, inch as default measurement for rulers and boxes.
I know from familiarity what size 12 pt Liberation Serif is. What I don’t know is what height in mm any particular font in 12 pt will be. In some ways it is easier using pt than expecting a font to be the actual size it says in the Font Size box.
The below are all 12 point font but they aren’t all 4.2 mm
1 Like