Here is one way using Font::TTFMetrics: 
    #!usr/bin/perl -wl

    use Font::TTFMetrics;

    my $font = Font::TTFMetrics->new('c:\windows\fonts\arial.ttf');

    my $font_size    = 10;
    my $dpi          = 96;
    my $units_per_em = $font->get_units_per_em();
    my $font_width   = $font->string_width("Some sort of long string")
+;

    # The following expression is from the TTFMetrics docs.
    my $pixel_width  = $font_width *$font_size *$dpi /(72 *$units_per_
+em);

    # The following expression is from the Spreadsheet::WriteExcel int
+ernals.
    my $cell_width   = ($pixel_width -5) /7; # For cell widths > 1

    print $cell_width;

[download]
I did a quick check with a few string lengths and point sizes and I got approximately the right answers. However, you may want to increase the final width by a small percentage to allow for a border. There are also some other font metric modules on CPAN that you might prefer.

--
John.

In reply to Re: Excel Width Calculation by jmcnamara
in thread Excel Width Calculation by Anonymous Monk

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