An agate ( US) or ruby ( UK) is a

unit Unit may refer to: Arts and entertainment * UNIT, a fictional military organization in the science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' * Unit of action, a discrete piece of action (or beat) in a theatrical presentation Music * ''Unit'' (a ...

of typographical measure. It is 5.5 typographical points, or about inch (1.94 mm). It can refer either to the height of a line of type or to a font that is 5.5 points. An is commonly used to display

statistical data In the pursuit of knowledge, data (; ) is a collection of discrete values that convey information, describing quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted. ...

legal notice Notice is the legal concept describing a requirement that a party be aware of legal process affecting their rights, obligations or duties. There are several types of notice: public notice (or legal notice), actual notice, constructive notice Ser ...

s in newspapers. It is considered to be the smallest point size that can be printed on newsprint and remain legible. Due to the small size of agate compared to typical newspaper body text that might be 8 to 10 points and due to its use for statistical, stock, racing or other table uses, the term "agate" may also refer to tables and texts using this

point size In typography, the point is the smallest unit of measure. It is used for measuring font size, leading, and other items on a printed page. The size of the point has varied throughout printing's history. Since the 18th century, the size of a poin ...

. The general description "agate" refers to the collection of miscellaneous tables, stock tables, horse racing and sports tables and so forth that may be in a newspaper. From the ''American Dictionary of Printing and Bookmaking'' (1894):

References

Typography Units of length Typesetting {{typ-stub

See also

References