Design Unit

The design unit is the measurement system every scene uses for layout values: positions, sizes, margins, spacing. Every coordinate in the scene is expressed in the active unit. The choice is between Pixel, Millimeter, and Inch.

For most teams, the decision is made the moment they create a scene: pixels for screen output, millimeters or inches for print. Mixing is not really a thing within a single scene; CE.SDK picks one unit and uses it throughout.

The choice is product-stage. Pick the unit that matches where the output is going.

• Pixel. The right choice for screen-based designs: web graphics, social media assets, digital banners, video frames. One unit equals one pixel in the design coordinate space.
• Millimeter. For print designs targeting metric dimensions: A4 documents, business cards, brochures, EU print formats. Matches physical paper sizes directly.
• Inch. For print designs using imperial dimensions: US Letter, 4×6 photo prints, US-market formats.

For mixed workflows where a design needs to render to both screen and print, pick the unit that matches the primary output and use DPI settings to manage the other. Most multi-format campaign workflows stick with pixels and rely on the engine’s resolution-independent rendering to handle the export.

When the design unit is Millimeter or Inch, DPI (dots per inch) controls how physical dimensions map to pixel dimensions at render time. The standard for print output is 300 DPI: at 300 DPI, one inch becomes 300 pixels in the exported output.

Font sizes are always specified in points regardless of the active design unit. The DPI setting governs how those points convert to pixels during rendering.

For print workflows, the recommended pattern is:

• Set the design unit to Millimeter or Inch, depending on the market
• Set DPI to 300 for high-quality print output
• Set page dimensions to match the target print format

An A4 example: design unit Millimeter, page dimensions 210 × 297 mm, export DPI 300. The exported image will be 2480 × 3508 pixels, the exact pixel count for an A4 page at print quality.

The design unit can be changed after a scene is created. When changed, CE.SDK automatically converts all existing layout values to maintain the visual appearance of the design. A block that was 210 mm wide will be converted to the equivalent pixel or inch value without any visual change to the output.

See page for how the design unit interacts with page dimensions, and export for how the unit affects the exported output.