Sent by Paceaux on 24 January 2012 20:08
I think other comments have kind of addressed that for most of us in this discussion group, we knew
that the em isn't one "M".
Regarding your article, I have a few thoughts:
1. Experiments have results. For the sake of your readers, provide the results of the experiment.
2. explain the experiment. I can see you've bordered out the width and height, but for a reader
unfamiliar with em calculation, they won't understand the relationship that pixels will have to it.
3. I'm struggling to understand your thesis or argument. Is it that the em is not the best letter to
measure by? Or is it that the em isn't always an "em"? The statement "I have a really big m"
doesn't support either of the arguments. That's fine if it doesn't, but you should clearly, in the
first two sentences, state your argument/thesis.
A few other things to consider:
"em" is generally thought as the relative width of the relevant font. The CSS2 spec, however,
doesn't say that explicitly. It refers to the "em square"
"ex" is relative height of the relevant font.
Some UAs may base x-height on a measurement between "o" and the baseline.
I've read where the em is calculated based on the "default" font size. so you may want to rerun the
experiment with a default font.
Also:
I think if you're making the argument that an em isn't always an "M", why not also check to see if
an "ex" is an "x"
</email>
<signature id="paceaux">
Frank M Taylor
http://frankmtaylor.com
@paceaux
</signature>
On Jan 23, 2012, at 11:23 PM, Ghodmode wrote:
> I wrote a new blog entry inspired by past discussions on WebDesign-L
> and CSS-D: "I Hava a Really Big 'm'"
>
> <blockquote>
> Contemporary wisdom says that we should use the relative unit ‘em‘
> for most, if not all, element measurements in web design.
>
> So, how big is an ‘em’? I set up a small experiment to tell me just that.
>
> Continue reading →
> http://www.ghodmode.com/blog/2012/01/i-have-a-really-big-m/
> </blockquote>
>
> I appreciate any comments, questions, or complaints.
>
> Thank you.
>
> --
> Ghodmode
> http://www.ghodmode.com
> ______________________________________________________________________
> css-discuss [EMAIL-REMOVED]]
> http://www.css-discuss.org/mailman/listinfo/css-d
> List wiki/FAQ -- http://css-discuss.incutio.com/
> List policies -- http://css-discuss.org/policies.html
> Supported by evolt.org -- http://www.evolt.org/help_support_evolt/
______________________________________________________________________
css-discuss [EMAIL-REMOVED]]
http://www.css-discuss.org/mailman/listinfo/css-d
List wiki/FAQ -- http://css-discuss.incutio.com/
List policies -- http://css-discuss.org/policies.html
Supported by evolt.org -- http://www.evolt.org/help_support_evolt
