How is "character unit" defined?

Regina Henschel 201

The OOXML standard (part 1) uses the term "character unit" in various places, for example in the definition of attribute firstLineChars. But it does not define the term "character unit". The file [MS-DOCX] has neither a definition.

CSS has for <length> several font related units, see https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/length#relative_length_units_based_on_font

What does Word use, especially when considerate non-Latin scripts?

1 answer

Tom Jebo 2,076 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2024-08-06T21:35:48.1166667+00:00

Hi Regina Henschel,

The "character unit" used here comes from RTF and binary MS-DOC and refers to twips. I had this question back in 2011 about RTF/MS-DOC but didn't realize its in ISO 29500 as well. I have to confirm first even thought I believe this is the case and then I'll see if the ISO Standard committee would agree to add a note.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Best regards,
Tom Jebo
Microsoft Open Specifications Support
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Tom Jebo 2,076 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2024-08-06T22:02:57.75+00:00

Hi Regina Henschel,

Correction, not twips. The character units used here is literally just the number of characters wide or tall something is which is dependent on point size, device characteristics, etc... The difference is that this is not a precise measurement but relative to character size or character grid.

Tom

Tom Jebo 2,076 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2024-08-20T17:55:36.54+00:00

Hi Regina Henschel,

I just wanted to make sure you saw my last comment that this is not specifically a twips measurement. If you have further questions, let me know.

Tom

Tom Jebo 2,076 Reputation points Microsoft Employee

2024-08-20T19:18:38.01+00:00

Hi Regina Henschel,

And since you asked about what Word uses for non-Latin scripts, I should have added that Word follows this as well using the width of the far east font in the normal style.

Hope this helps.

Tom
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How is "character unit" defined?

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