RE: What's an em

> -----Original Message-----
> From: erik@netscape.com [mailto:erik@netscape.com]
...
> > >   BODY { font-family: Verdana; font-size-adjust: first-avail; }
> > 
> > I'm not sure of the implications of that.
> 
> In the above example, if Verdana's ex/em ratio is 0.58, then
> "first-avail" is the same as "0.58", except that the style sheet author
> doesn't need to figure out Verdana's ratio. The implementation figures
> out the ratio by looking at the Verdana font. This makes life 
> easier for the style sheet author.

"first-avail" means nobody knows which ratio, or which size, one
finally gets.  Naaa.
 
> > 'font-size ex-height <the size asked for>' is
> > straight-forward and easy to teach and understand.
> 
> As Clive pointed out, the line-height should not be based on the
> ex-height. So now you would need to carefully explain the line-height
> issues, so that people don't think that line-height is a factor of
> ex-height.

I've never ever suggested that it would be a good idea to say
"line-height 2ex" (though possible, even now).  One should recommend
that one uses "line-height 1line" or "line-height 1.2line" or similar,
where the unit "line" is the Åp-height(!!!) of the current font.
I know, that overloads the notion of "a line" a bit, but people
seem to be able to understand expressions like "one and a half
line spacing" and "double line spacing".

		Kind regards
		/kent k