Decimal Conversion for Art Majors: Using Decimal X and Y Coordinates for Increased Accuracy
The key to accuracy in your design layouts is to place items with mathmatical accuracy by their X and Y coordinate numbers. Most people find it easier to think in simple fractions but you also need to be able to also quickly convert those fractions to decimal numbers. This might sound difficult to many designers since many of us did not excel in math in school. After all, that's why we're artists.
Doing the Math: Nothing Scarey
It really isn't so hard. It is only elementary school level math. You will find that you pick it up quickly once you begin to notice the correlation between the ruler increments and the numbers which constantly are showing up over and over again.
To make your life just a bit easier, we have provided a useful chart to convert most common fractions to decimal numbers. This should cover just about anything that you need to know. You don't need to memorize anything, just print out a copy of this page and keep it close by.
| 11/64 = .015625 | |
17/64 = .265625 | |
33/64 = .515625 | |
49/64 = .765625 |
| 1/32 = .03125 | 9/32 = .28125 | 17/32 = .53125 | 25/32 = .78125 | |||
| 3/64 = .046875 | 19/64 = .296875 | 35/64 = .546875 | 51/64 = .796875 | |||
| 1/16 = .0625 | 5/16 = .3125 | 9/16 = .5625 | 13/16 = .8125 | |||
| 5/64 = .078125 | 21/64 = .328125 | 37/64 = .578125 | 53/64 = .828125 | |||
| 3/32 = .09375 | 11/32 = .34375 | 19/32 = .59375 | 27/32 = .84375 | |||
| 7/64 = .109375 | 23/64 = .359375 | 39/64 = .609375 | 55/64 = .859375 | |||
| 1/8 = .125 | 3/8 = .375 | 5/8 = .625 | 7/8 = .875 | |||
| 9/64 = .140625 | 25/64 = .390625 | 41/64 = .640625 | 57/64 = .890625 | |||
| 5/32 = .15625 | 13/32 = .40625 | 21/32 = .65625 | 29/32 = .90625 | |||
| 11/64 = .171875 | 27/64 = .421875 | 43/64 = .671875 | 59/64 = .921875 | |||
| 3/16 = .1875 | 7/16 = .4375 | 11/16 = .6875 | 15/16 = .9375 | |||
| 13/64 = .203125 | 29/64 = .453125 | 45/64 = .703125 | 61/64 = .953125 | |||
| 7/32 = .21875 | 15/32 = .46875 | 23/32 = .71875 | 31/32 = .96875 | |||
| 15/64 = .234375 | 31/64 = .484375 | 47/64 = .734375 | 63/64 = .984375 | |||
| 1/4 = .25 | 1/2 = .50 | 3/4 = .75 | 1 = 1 |
