Twip
{{Short description|Typographical measurement}}
{{about|the screen-independent measurement unit|3=TWIP steel}}
{{more footnotes needed|date=January 2012}}
{{Infobox unit
| name = twip
| image =
| caption =
| standard = Typographic units
| quantity = Length
| units1 = Typographic units
| inunits1 = {{sfrac|20}} points
| inunits2 = {{sfrac|1440}} in
| inunits3 = {{val|17.64|ul=μm}}
}}
A twip (abbreviating "twentieth of a point" or "twentieth of an inch point"The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing:
http://foldoc.org/twip) is a typographical measurement, defined as {{frac|1|20}} of a typographical point. One twip is {{frac|1|1440}} inch, or 17.64 μm.{{cite web|title=Word 2007: Rich Text Format (RTF) Specification, version 1.9.1|url=https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=10725|publisher=Microsoft Corporation.|access-date=12 March 2017|page=8|date=19 March 2008}}
In computing
Twips are screen-independent units to ensure that the proportion of screen elements are the same on all display systems. A twip is defined as being {{frac|1|1440}} of an inch (approximately 17.64 μm).
A pixel is a screen-dependent unit, standing for 'picture element'. A pixel is a dot that represents the smallest graphical measurement on a screen.
Twips are the default unit of measurement in Visual Basic (version 6 and earlier, prior to VB.NET). Converting between twips and screen pixels is achieved using the TwipsPerPixelX and TwipsPerPixelY properties{{Cite web|url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/visualstudio/visual-basic-6/aa445741(v=vs.60)|title=TwipsPerPixelX, TwipsPerPixelY Properties|website=docs.microsoft.com|date=23 August 2006 }} or the ScaleX and ScaleY methods.{{Cite web|url=https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/visualstudio/visual-basic-6/aa244168(v=vs.60)|title=ScaleX, ScaleY Methods|website=docs.microsoft.com|date=23 August 2006 }}
Twips can be used with Symbian OS bitmap images for automatic scaling from bitmap pixels to device pixels.{{Cite web|url=https://www.25yearsofprogramming.com/c-2/blitting-and-bitmaps.html|title=Blitting and bitmaps - Symbian OS C++|first=Janelle|last=Dueder|date=December 20, 2020|website=25 Years of Programming}} They are also used in Rich Text Format from Microsoft for platform-independent exchange and they are the base length unit in OpenOffice.org and its fork LibreOffice.
Flash internally specifies most sizes in units it calls twips, but which are really {{frac|1|20}} of a logical pixel,{{cite web| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161120220314/adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/devnet/swf/pdf/swf-file-format-spec.pdf | archive-date=2016-11-20 |url=http://www.adobe.com/content/dam/Adobe/en/devnet/swf/pdf/swf-file-format-spec.pdf | title=SWF FILE FORMAT SPECIFICATION}} which is {{frac|3|4}} of an actual twip.[https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/CSS_pixel Flash logical pixels are the same as HTML logical pixels, of which there are 96 to an inch, rather than 72]
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
- {{cite book |title=Visual Basic Programmers' Workbook |last=Sparke |first=Gerard |author2=Etherington, Stephen |year= 2000 |publisher=Pearson Education Australia |isbn= 978-1-74009-445-0 }}
- MSDN Library — [http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa314264(VS.60).aspx com.ms.wfc.ui.CoordinateSystem.TWIP]
- Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing — [http://foldoc.org/index.cgi?query=twip twip]
- Foundation, ActionScript 3.0 Animation, Making Things Move! by Keith Peters {{ISBN|978-1-59059-791-0}} (pbk)
- [http://science-is-amazing.blogspot.com/2013/02/converting-twips-to-pixels-and-vice.html Converting between twips and pixels - Ruby code]
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