Pica (typography)

Pica is a type of typography (or writing style) used in print and desktop publishing. It is most commonly used for printing text in a font that is very small and clear, such as in books and magazines. Pica is measured in points and one point is equal to 1/72 of an inch. This means that if you take a piece of paper that is one inch wide, and divide that into 72 little pieces, each one of those pieces is a point. A pica is 12 points, so that's 12 of the little pieces stuck together.