<
unit, graphics> (TWentIeth of a Point) 1/20 of a {Postscript
point}, or 1/1440th of an inch. There are thus 1440
twips to
an inch or about 567
twips to a centimeter.
Twips are used in
Microsoft formats and products, notably
Rich Text Format,
Visual BASIC,
Visual C++, and {printer
drivers}; and in
IBM AFP products.
Twips were devised in the olden days to describe the sizes of
characters produced by
dot matrix printers that were
constrained to multiples of either 12 or 10 dots per inch.
[
Is it definitely relative to a __Postscript__ point, as opposed
to one of the other definitions of point?]
(2002-03-11)