Posted by Bernhard Sturm on 05/31/07 10:32

Jukka K. Korpela wrote:
> Scripsit Ben C:
>
>>> An em is the font height (or the font height of the parent element
>>> when you are specifying the font-size).
>>
>> Technically it's a measure of width (of an 'M') rather than of height.
>
> No it isn't. This disinformation used to be regularly presented and
> refuted in various newsgroups, but recently it has been more quiet.
> Anyway, if in doubt,
> a) check the CSS specifications
> b) make a simple test:
> <div style="width:1em; height:1em; line-height:1; background:yellow:
> color:black;font-size:300%">M</div>

Jukka: this is true in it's application, but Ben was talking about it's
'technical' origin. This is something different. Read a bit about
typography (I am a typographer myself) and you will find out, that Ben
was right. The 'em' unit goes back to the Romans using the width of the
letter 'M' to refer to the size of their letters...
Don't only look at how the 'em' unit is implemented in the CSS-specs,
it's sometimes good to know the historical origin of things.

hth
bernhard


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