Should I use Inchs or mm

[adamnichols45]

Im in the Uk and advertise to Uk customers.

But im not sure on what to use either 1" or 1mm

What do you expect to see?
What do you want to see?

[Receptional Andy]

In the UK "for trade" you generally have to use metric measurements under the Weights and Measures Act 1985 [statutelaw.gov.uk] (except for a few exceptions). You can use inches too, though. IANAL, and I don't know about applying this specifically to websites.

[edited by: Receptional_Andy at 10:39 pm (utc) on June 7, 2008]

[Syzygy]

Memory serves me better than expected.

Here's an item from the BBC, it's from Sept of last year:

EU gives up on 'metric Britain' [news.bbc.co.uk]

Syzygy

[thecoalman]

I can remember in grade school back in the 70's when they started with the metric switch here in the U.S. Frankly I wish they had stuck with it because it's so much easier to use. The true ease of use came to light when I took up drafting classes. Converting between feet, inches and yards is huge hassle.

[MatthewHSE]

I find the metric system terribly confusing for the simple reason that I have nothing to relate it to. I know how far a foot, a yard, and a mile are, but a kilometer has absolutely no meaning to me. Even if I tried to learn the metric system, I'd still be "thinking" in normal measurements.

I don't know about drafting, but as far as general day-to-day use is concerned, nothing beats the Standard system for people who are used to it.

[steve]

I think it will depend on the age of your visitors.

Young 'uns like metric, oldies like imperial. Can you show both? 1" (25.4mm) etc.

[Old_Honky]

I disagree, as an old'un who prefers metric I think all this fuss about keeping archaic measuring systems is pointless.

I was taught imperial measures at school, but early in my working life I had to use metric (packaging industry) and found it to be much easier. When I have to estimate something's size I automatically use metric and nothing is more annoying than somebody saying "What's that in feet and inches?" I always say "It doesn't matter; learn to think metric - it's easier."

However you have to be pragmatic because there are a lot of die-hard imperialists out there who want to pathetically cling to their out-moded and confusing system of weights and measures, so on our company web site we give product weights and dimensions in metric with the approx. imperial in brackets e.g. 6m (19ft 8žins).

One thing that particularly annoys me is that although we buy our fuel in litres everyone still talks about "miles per gallon". This is incredibly difficult to work out so why don't we use "Kilometres per litre" or even "miles per litre" as nobody seems to use kilometres yet.

[RonPK]

But im not sure on what to use either 1" or 1mm

Unless your products are really tiny, cm seems more appropriate to me.

[sem4u]

It depends what you are selling. Trousers are usually measured in inches round the waist and in length. For gadgets you may be able to get away with cms.

[adamnichols45]

Im selling diy products.

Aimed at 20-40 years olds

[thecoalman]

I don't know about drafting, but as far as general day-to-day use is concerned, nothing beats the Standard system for people who are used to it.

Only because you are used to it, and it's not necessarily just drafting. BTW we used feet and inches in drafting class. The point is you can do conversions between different units of measurement simply by moving the decimal point. ;)