资料来源 : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
The foregoing account is conformed to the designations made use
of by American type founders, but is substantially correct for
England. Agate, however, is called ruby, in England, where,
also, a size intermediate between nonpareil and minion is
employed, called emerald.
{Point system of type bodies} (Type Founding), a system
adopted by the type founders of the United States by which
the various sizes of type have been so modified and
changed that each size bears an exact proportional
relation to every other size. The system is a modification
of a French system, and is based on the pica body. This
pica body is divided into twelfths, which are termed
``points,'' and every type body consist of a given number
of these points. Many of the type founders indicate the
new sizes of type by the number of points, and the old
names are gradually being done away with. By the point
system type founders cast type of a uniform size and
height, whereas formerly fonts of pica or other type made
by different founders would often vary slightly so that
they could not be used together. There are no type in
actual use corresponding to the smaller theoretical sizes
of the point system. In some cases, as in that of ruby,
the term used designates a different size from that
heretofore so called.