Pitch.
The pitch of a perforation is defined as the distance between one perforation and the next. This distance is measured from the lowest side of the first perforation, to the lowest side of the next one, measured along the length of the film.
Today both KS and BH types of perforations are manufactured in two different
pitches, called long pitch and short pitch. These two pitches are designed to
obtain the best results in the printing of positives on continuous printers, in
which the negative remains inside the drum and the positive, which is placed
above, has to cover a greater circumference. Here we are talking of thousandths
of a millimetre; the dimensions of the two pitches: Long Pitch 35mm film has a
pitch of 4.750 mm and Short Pitch [sometimes called Standard pitch], 4.740 mm.
The perforation specification defines both pitch and perforation type, for
example KS-4750 and BH-4740 Generally the long pitch is used for the positive
films (with KS perforations) used for printing on fast rotary gates, while the
short pitch is generally used for negative, duplicate and intermediate stock
exposed by lens systems in intermittent gates [and are BH perforations].