(n) In typography, a point is about 1/72 of an inch and is used to measure the height of characters. (Historically, a point was.0138 inches, a little less than 1/72 of an inch, but this has changed.)

The height of the characters is one characteristic of fonts. Some fonts are referred to as fixed-point fonts because their representation allows for only one size. In contrast, a scalable font is one that is represented in such a way that the size can easily be changed.