• Originally, a point was a unit of measure in the typesetting industry. A printer’s point is 1/72.27 inch.
• In PostScript a point is 1/72 of in an inch.
• In Java, a point is one pixel width/height. If you had a old fashioned low-resolution monitor with 72 dpi resolution, then a point would also mean 1/72 of an inch. So when you ask for a 10 point Font in Java, you don’t get what printers call a 10-point font. You get a font about 10 pixels high, which could be tiny or huge depending on your monitor resolution.
• In Java, with Graphics, a Point with a capital P, is a class describing a location on the screen, or a location within a window relative to its upper left corner, with an x and y co-ordinate. Points have two public int fields x and y, however the getX and getY methods return doubles. x is measured across from the left in pixels. y is measured down from the top in pixels.
• In Java, with Graphics2D, a Point2D with a capital P, is a class describing a location on the screen, or a location within a window in user-defined co-ordinates, which are much more flexible. Using AffineTransform, you can transform the co-ordinates to go in any direction you want and aren’t even necessarily orthogonal. Point2D.Float that Point2D.Double are similar to Point, but they store the x, y in float and double respectively. The strange dot in the name comes about because Float and Double are inner classes of Point2D.

Here is what various point sizes look like on your screen in HTML:

Here is what various point sizes look like on your screen in Java:

You need Java to see this image.

If the above PointSize Java Applet does not work…

1. This Java Applet needs Java 1.1 or later, ideally version 1.6.0_06 and a recent browser.
2. You should see an Applet above looking much like the screenshot. If you don’t, the following should help you get it working:
3. If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer, try another browser. Seriously. Microsoft has taken great pains, over and over, to screw up Java and every other mult-platform standardisation.
4. If you are using Internet Explorer 7, you must allow blocked content permission for Active X to run. This also gives permission to Java to run. Click the Information bar, and then click Allow blocked content. Unfortunately, this also allows dangerous ActiveX code to run. However, you must do this in order to get access to perfectly-safe Java Applets running in a sandbox. This is part of Microsoft’s war on Java. Don’t put up with it! Use a different browser.
5. To ensure your Java is up to date, check with Wassup.
6. If the above Java Applet does not work, check the Java console for error messages.
7. If the above Applet does not work, you might have better luck with the downloadable version.
8. If you still can’t get the program working click HELP for more detail.
9. If you can’t get the program working after trying the advice above and from the HELP button below, have bugs to report or ideas to improve the program or its documentation, please send me an email at.

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To see what type looks like at various point sizes see Font Shower.