What's the best measurement unit to use? Point, Pica, Pixel, Inches or mm? what?

[Affinity-Inspiration]

I'm wondering what the best size to use when creating templates is, especially in Publisher. I mean, I kind of default to Inches or mm. Simply because I can visualise something that 5" x 8" - where as if that's in Pica or Points I have no visual map of that size. It could be the side of a house for all I'd know. 360 x 576 points for 5 x 8 inches.  Ok easy enough I guess but that  visual representation still requires me to do the oh yes, that's um... 5x8 - or what ever.

To make it more difficult - in Preferences we can even set our default units of measurement.

So, really - is there a standard? Or is it a case of like all other standards, there's so many to choose from? Just pick one.

 

[Andy05]

Pica and points are traditional units, originating from the typography sector. 1 pica equals roughly 1/6th of an inch and is divided into 12 points. To make things even more confusing, there are different "picas" (French and American)... Nowadays, if using pica/point as units they are mainly being used for font sizes and line widths. At least over here, in Germany, neither pica nor points are being used for document sizes.

As for latter it's usually either mm/cm or inches (depending on your country's usual units for measuring) for designing things for print. If you design for web, designing in pixels gives more control over the final result.

[GarryP]

In addition to the advice above, I don’t think the Unit of Measure really matters these days, as long as your document dimensions are correct. (There may be exceptions but they are probably rare, unless you need to be working in pixels.)
If you create a for-print document which is 2×3 inches and switch to millimetres then it will still be 2×3 inches.
You can change the UOM on-the-fly if you have the rulers displayed so just switch between them as you need to.
There are also options in Preferences where you can choose whether certain things are always measured in certain UOMs or the document UOM.
I generally use millimetres/inches for document layout (page, margins, guides, etc.) and points/pixels for content (line widths, etc.), but that’s just me.

[Affinity-Inspiration]

Thanks for the insights. I tend to agree...

"I generally use millimetres/inches for document layout (page, margins, guides, etc.) and points/pixels for content (line widths, etc.), but that’s just me."

Just been looking at a load of other application templates and they are all in points, so I thought it might be worth asking around.

 

[Old Bruce]

3 hours ago, HarryMcGovern said:

I'm wondering what the best size to use when creating templates is, especially in Publisher. I mean, I kind of default to Inches or mm. Simply because I can visualise something that 5" x 8" - where as if that's in Pica or Points I have no visual map of that size.

Inches or mm will be the best for you. Simply because that is what you can visualize in. Myself I use Picas, Inches, and Pixels depending on the type of work I am doing. And only because I am used to those far more than Metric measurements, despite Canada using metric officially (in our own messed up way).

EDIT: With the following Caveat, if you are going to be collaborating with people who are used to/insist on using Picas then you might want to use Picas.