Sorry if I missed it, but I searched in the .pdf as well as the github documentation and was not able to find a reference regarding exactly what the number/unit values in the text box options represent - Height, HSpace, VSpace. Even though I have mm chosen in the settings menu under units, that does not appear to be relevant for the text settings. If I input 40 in height, the text is 29.08 mm high. 40 pica equals 169 mm. 40 points equal 14.111 mm. If I set the spacing as 10, it puts a spacing in of 3.632 mm.
Typing in “40 mm” into the Height box does not work.
The slightly shorter answer:
Font height is in mm (or whatever your chosen units are) but that height is the height of the EM square in which font characters are designed - they don’t have to use the whole thing.
If you want the character height to be exact, you have to type your text, then use the sizing controls to set the actual physical height.
If the “height” value you entered was literally applied to the characters you typed, your text would change size with each new character. For example, if you typed … all by itself, should those dots be 25mm high if that’s what you said the font height should be? Probably not what you’d want.
It’s an incredibly common point of confusion in graphic design software.
I appreciate the explanation. It helps to know that the reality is you basically have to type the text and then resize as needed. I was surprised when I was typing in various letters of the same font at 40 height but they were not even the same height (e.g. “A” was 29.08 mm, “C” was 30.137 mm, etc.).
