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As a non-English speaker, I'm confused with it when I want to translate the term scaled point: A scaled point is of fixed size. It could not be scaled up or down. Why it is called a scaled point?

Z.H.
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  • Please, show an example using this term. – Sigur Oct 12 '14 at 01:12
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    @Sigur It is almost sure that OP has in mind 65536 sp = 1 pt. – Przemysław Scherwentke Oct 12 '14 at 01:25
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    It can't be scaled up or down, because it has been already scaled. May be you think it means scalable point? Hece it not being scalable, but fixed, disorients you. – Manuel Oct 12 '14 at 01:28
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    @sigur: 7 matches for "scaled point" in buffer: texbook.tex 3317:sp&scaled point ($\rm65536,sp=1,pt$)\cr}$$ 3326:^^|sp|^^{scaled point} 7199:of~^{sp} (scaled points). 7213:of~sp (scaled points). For example, if/ |\skip1| holds the value 16767:integer by assuming units of scaled points. For example, if/ |\hsize=100pt| 27542:scaled points, 57--58, 270. 27640:|sp| (scaled point), +57, 118--119, 270, 398, 400. :-) – David Carlisle Oct 12 '14 at 01:31
  • @DavidCarlisle, thanks. Very technical, as always. – Sigur Oct 12 '14 at 01:36
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    Just to augment what's been said so far, since you mention you're not a (native) English speaker: in the context of scaled points, the word "scaled" is used as the past tense form (and/or perfect tense form) of the verb "to scale". A scaled point (sp) is a unit of length that's obtained by multiplying a (North American) typographic point (pt) by 2^{-16}=1/65536. Since the multiplicative factor is between 0 and 1 (and rather closer to 0 than it is to 1!), this multiplicative operation may quite naturally be called a "scaling (down)" of the length unit pt. – Mico Oct 12 '14 at 01:54

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well it's just a name, but (presumably) it refers to the fact that it's 1/2^{16} pt so it is essentially pt but scaled by 2^{16} so that TeX can use integer arithmetic to manipulate fractional pt dimensions.

David Carlisle
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