Foot mark vs inch mark? Great question. To summarize this article into one sentence the footmark is a single prime (‘) after the number and an inch mark (“) is a double prime after the number – not to get confused with an apostrophe and quotation marks.

So, continue to read this guide to fully understand how measurements are taken, recorded, and requested using these symbols across the measurement industry.

Foot mark vs Inch mark

Firstly, if you are someone that has not worked with a measuring tape or worked with design prints or plans and has now received these documents which have these weird lines or tick marks that look like apostrophes and quotation marks, you might be feeling a little confused.

But don’t worry. Everyone goes through this at some point or another. Especially if you grew up learning the metric system and now find yourself needing to use the imperial system. This is exactly what happened to me!

What?! Metric system and imperial system? Ok, to help you understand the difference between the two, first go read this article on imperial and metric systems. Once you are done reading that article and you have a better understanding, come back and continue reading.

So, let’s talk more about the inch mark and foot mark in some more detail.

Inch mark (“)

We can further look into the inch mark by asking and answering a few questions about the inch mark.

What is an inch mark?

An inch mark is a symbol that directly follows the number which is usually put in place to highlight the length of something you have measured. Furthermore, the inch mark is displayed as a double prime character.

Also, many people refer to these prime characters as tick marks and ask the question: “How many tick marks is an inch?”

Well, the answer to this question is: “There are two tick marks which depict the inch symbol.”

This double tick symbol does seem to be confusing at first. Especially when combined with the single tick mark symbol for “foot”.

But follow along and you will be a pro by the end of this article.

What are inch marks called?

 This double-tick-inch-mark is also called a double prime. The double prime is used to denote several things, such as, the number of seconds in an angle measurement, the number of inches in a given length, transformed coordinates, conjugate joints, and derivatives.

So, depending on where or what their use is needed for is when we decide which term to say. And in some cases, a combination of the terms can also be used.

For instance, surveyors measure coordinates to map out the location of their project. So, the term they will use to describe the coordinates is seconds. They will then combine this with the length they took from point A to point B using inches and feet.

Here is an image that illustrates this inch symbol combined with the second symbol and how they look alike, which can be confusing.

(The correct way to read this would be “walk 20 feet 8 inches from point A to land at coordinates 42 degree 27 minutes 18 seconds North 12 degrees 12 minutes 26 inches East.)

How do you write an inch mark?

To simplify this question, let us answer some common questions.

Abbreviation for inch mark?

The inch mark is globally recognised to be abbreviated as in and symbolized as “. You can find this through the International Organization for Standardization ISO 31-1, Annex A.  This organization works to implement a globally recognized system.

Something to note on how the inch marks are denoted: they are a straight line and not an apostrophe but are at a slight angle from bottom left to top right (south-west to north-east). Going straight up and down is recognised and accepted but not of true form.

So, now that you know how to write an inch mark or second or double prime, you are probably wondering how to type them into a word or excel document.

Let’s take a look at how to do this.

How to type inch marks on mac

You can use the Character Viewer on your Mac to insert the inch symbol (“).

Using this Character Viewer allows you to add special characters and symbols to text, such as scientific symbols, pictographs, parenthesis, Latin alphabetical characters, and mathematics symbols to name a few.

Follow along to insert the inch mark (“) on a Mac:

1. Place your cursor and click on the page in the text area where you need to insert the symbol. (Note: You can also highlight the area)
2. Press Control + Command + Space bar (together) to bring up the Character Viewer. Alternatively, on the top navigation bar, click on Edit and then click on Emoji & Symbols.
3. Type the word Prime into the search field at the top and press Enter.
4. The symbols should appear now. Click on the one that looks like ” and now it should be in your text.

There you have it. These are the steps to insert the “double tick” inch mark on Mac using the Character Viewer.

Looking for a video walkthrough? Watch this video. It has 6 different ways to insert the inch mark on Mac.

How to make inch marks in Word: on Windows

Short on time? Watch this video. There is no sound but it is fairly simple to follow:

Like to follow in detail (like I do), keep reading.

Word in Windows is the platform that I used to type this article. And while doing the research on this article, I have found several ways.

The simplest way I found was to use the keyboard:

• and next to the Enter button is the Quotation and  Apostrophe combo key (your keyboard might be different but this is the typical qwerty keyboard I am using). When you press this key you get ‘ and then when you hold down Shift and press this same key for the top function it gives you “. This “quotation(“)” is what you want.
• The trick here is once you have the quotation marks, go ahead and hold down Ctrl and then press Z. This is the shortcut to the Undo button (which you can also find under the Home tab which is an arrow going in the anticlockwise direction).
• This then straightens out the curved quotation marks. Even though this is widely accepted, it is not the purest form.
• To get it more towards the correct display, highlight these new straightened quotations and then select the Italics button (usually next to the Bold button under the Home tab). Now your straightened quotations are at a slight angle.

Great! This is now more accurate and even more so widely accepted. However, still not pure though but hard to see without a direct pure version alongside it. And even beside one another, it is hard to see.

Example: 1.“ 2.″ –  I will let you decide which is the correct one. (answer at the end of this article)

And for the pure version of typing or inserting the inch mark in Windows using Word:

•  simply head over to the Insert tab,
• by clicking the Symbol Icon (usually to the right side of the ribbon/menu strip),
• select more symbols,
• in the font bar ensure “(normal text)” is displayed,
• in the subset bar find “General Punctuation”
• Scroll down to the prime figures and select the double prime and click insert.

That’s it! I find this way a little longer and more clicks and buttons to press. But, if you think you will be using this symbol often, there are ways to create shortcuts to save time. You can watch this video for help doing this.

How to type inch marks in photoshop

This is a great video for anyone that uses photoshop. When you are in the character map, scroll and find your inch mark and continue along with the video as he clearly and kindly shows us.

And that is it. We now know what the inch mark is and what other people may call it (double tick mark, second mark, etc) and also know how to insert and type the inch marks into your digital documents.

Now it’s time to learn the parent of the inch – the Foot.

Foot mark (‘)

Note: With the content being of a very similar context i n foot mark vs inch mark, below are some repeat images, videos and some text. This is intended for an easier and simpler user experience for our readers.

We can further look into the foot mark by asking and answering a few questions about the foot mark.

What is a foot mark?

A foot mark is a symbol that directly follows the number of the length of something that you have measured. The foot mark contains a single prime character.

Many people refer to these prime characters as tick marks and ask the question: “How many tick marks is a foot?”

Well, the answer is: “There is one tick mark which depicts the foot symbol.”

This single tick symbol does seem to be confusing at first. Especially when combined with the double tick mark symbol for inch (“).

But follow along and you will be a pro by the end of this article.

What are foot marks called?

 This single-tick-foot-mark is called a prime. The prime is used to denote several things, such as the number of minutes in an angle measurement, the number of feet (more than one foot) in a given length, transformed coordinates, conjugate joints, and derivatives.

So, depending on where or what their use is needed for is when we decide which term to say. And in some cases, a combination of the terms can be used.

For instance, surveyors measure coordinates to map out the location of their project. So, the term they will use to describe the coordinates is minutes. Furthermore, they can combine this with the length they took from point A to point B using inches and feet.

See below for an example of what is a foot symbol combined with the minute symbol.

How do you write a foot mark?

There are many ways to write the foot mark. Many are accepted but there is a true method to follow which is good practice. Let’s dig in deeper.

Abbreviation for foot mark?

The foot mark is globally recognised to be abbreviated as ft and symbolized as ‘. You can find this through the International Organization for Standardization ISO 31-1, Annex A.  This organization works to implement a globally recognised system.

Something to note, and like the inch mark, is how the foot marks are denoted: they are a straight line and not an apostrophe but are at a slight angle from bottom left to top right (south-west to north-east). Going straight up and down is recognised and accepted but not of true form.

So, now that you know how to write a foot mark or minute or prime, you are probably wondering how to type them into a word or excel document (or other digital platforms).

Ok, now let’s see how you can to do this.

How to type foot marks on Mac

Like the inch mark, you can use the Character Viewer on your Mac to insert the foot symbol (‘).

If you skipped to this section, using this Character Viewer allows you to add special characters and symbols to text, such as scientific symbols, pictographs, parenthesis, Latin alphabetical characters, and mathematics symbols to name a few.

Follow along to insert the foot mark (‘) on a Mac:

• Place your cursor and click on the page in the text area where you need to insert the symbol. (Note: You can also highlight the area)
• Press Control + Command + Space bar (together) to bring up the Character Viewer. (Alternatively, on the top navigation bar, click on Edit and then click on Emoji & Symbols.)
• Type the word Prime into the search field at the top and press Enter.
• The symbols should appear. Click on the one that looks like ‘ and now it should be in your text.

There you have it. These are the steps to insert the ‘single tick’ foot mark on Mac using the Character Viewer.

Looking for a video walkthrough? Watch this video. It has 6 different ways to type the prime characters on Mac.

How to make foot marks in Word: on Windows

Short on time? Watch this video. There is no sound, but it is fairly simple to follow:

Note: The platforms are updated and might look different to what you see, however, the icons are pretty much the same.

Like to follow in detail (like I do), then keep reading.

Word in Windows: this is the platform that I used to type this article. And while doing the research on this article, I have found several ways to insert/type the foot mark.

The simplest way I found was to use the keyboard and:

• The key next to the Enter button is the Quotation and Apostrophe combo key. When you press this key you get ‘ and then when you hold down Shift and press the same key for the top function it gives you “. This apostrophe (‘) is what you want.
• Now, the trick here is, once you have the apostrophe mark, you go ahead and hold down Ctrl and then press Z. This is the shortcut to the Undo button (which you can also find under the Home tab which is an arrow going in the anticlockwise direction if you would prefer to just click this button and not do Ctrl+Z).
• This then straightens out the curved apostrophe mark. Even though this is widely accepted, it is not the purest form.
• To get it more towards the correct display, highlight this newly straightened apostrophe and then select the Italics button (usually next to the Bold button under the Home tab). Now your straightened apostrophe is at a slight angle. Great!

This is now more accurate and even more so widely accepted. However, this is still not of pure form though but hard to see without a direct pure version alongside it. And even beside one another, it is hard to see the difference.

Example: 1.‘ 2.′ –  I will let you decide which is the correct one. (The answer is at the end of this article)

And finally, for the pure version of typing or inserting the foot mark in Word on Windows:

• Firstly, simply head over to the Insert tab,
• then click the Symbol Icon (usually to the right side of the ribbon/menu strip),
• then select more symbols,
• now ensure “(normal text)” is displayed in the font bar,
• and in the subset bar find “General Punctuation”
• Then, Scroll down to the prime figures (you should see 3 separate prime figures) and select the single prime and click insert. – See below image. Double Prime (highlighted) is inbewteen the Single and Triple Prime characters.

That’s it! I find this way a little longer and more clicks and buttons to press. But, if you think you will be using this symbol often, there are ways to create shortcuts to save time.

You can watch this video for help doing this.

How to type a foot mark in photoshop

Just like the inch mark write-up above, this is a great video for anyone that uses photoshop. When you are in the character map, scroll and find your foot mark and continue along with the video as he clearly and kindly goes about showing us.

And that is it. We now know what the foot mark is and what other people may call it depending on their industry (tick mark, minute, etc) and also know how to insert and type the foot mark into your digital documents.

References:

• Practicaltypography
• Mathworld
• Wikipedia
• Software accountant

Answer to the comparison between the two characters: option number 2 is the correct insert.