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Thread: EMs and EXs
Number of posts in this thread: 6 (In chronological order)
From: Dagmar Noll
Date: Wed, Dec 01 2004 7:11AM
Subject: EMs and EXs
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Hi! This is my first posting to this list. I've been reading for a few
months, however.
My question is about relative units. I've done a lot of reading on EM vs.
Pixel, but lately I've been seeing references here and there to the EX unit,
but not enough to determine if there is any browser support of this unit,
what, exactly, it is (I did read the W3C spec, but their explanations
usually elude me), and if it helps make pages that are more or less flexible
than an EM-based page would be.
Has anyone else explored EXs?
Dagmar
From: Jon Gunderson
Date: Wed, Dec 01 2004 7:27AM
Subject: Re: EMs and EXs
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Dagmar,
em is the height of the current uppercase font being rendered
ex is the height of the current lowercase font being rendered
So these provide spacing based on the current font height of
the element being styled with CSS.
Jon
---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2004 09:15:56 -0500
>From: "intern.wincog"
>Subject: [WebAIM] EMs and EXs
>To: "WebAIM Discussion List"
>
>
>Hi! This is my first posting to this list. I've been reading
for a few
>months, however.
>
>My question is about relative units. I've done a lot of
reading on EM vs.
>Pixel, but lately I've been seeing references here and there
to the EX unit,
>but not enough to determine if there is any browser support
of this unit,
>what, exactly, it is (I did read the W3C spec, but their
explanations
>usually elude me), and if it helps make pages that are more
or less flexible
>than an EM-based page would be.
>
>Has anyone else explored EXs?
>
>Dagmar
>
>----
>To subscribe or unsubscribe, visit
http://www.webaim.org/discussion/
>
Jon Gunderson, Ph.D., ATP
Coordinator of Assistive Communication and Information Technology
Division of Rehabilitation - Education Services
MC-574
College of Applied Life Studies
University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign
1207 S. Oak Street, Champaign, IL 61820
Voice: (217) 244-5870
Fax: (217) 333-0248
E-mail: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
WWW: http://cita.rehab.uiuc.edu/
WWW: https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/jongund/www/
From: julian.rickards@ndm.gov.on.ca
Date: Wed, Dec 01 2004 7:53AM
Subject: Re: EMs and EXs
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ex has less support than em, go with em if you are considering either.
In addition to what jongund mentioned, although em and ex relate to heights,
you can use either to specify widths as well such as margin-left: 1em or
width: 30ex.
Jules
-----Original Message-----
From: jongund [mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ]
Dagmar,
em is the height of the current uppercase font being rendered
ex is the height of the current lowercase font being rendered
So these provide spacing based on the current font height of
the element being styled with CSS.
From: Jens Meiert
Date: Wed, Dec 01 2004 7:58AM
Subject: Re: EMs and EXs
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> Has anyone else explored EXs?
The support for "ex" is vague at best, I fear -- most user-agents
misleadingly seem to equate 1ex with .5em, the only exception being IE 5 for
Macintosh which supposedly generates a bitmapped lowercase "x" and measures
its height in pixels, AFAIK.
Hence, I don't recommend to use "ex".
Regards,
Jens.
--
Jens Meiert
Interface Architect (IxD)
http://meiert.com/
From: Austin, Darrel
Date: Wed, Dec 01 2004 8:06AM
Subject: Re: EMs and EXs
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> The support for "ex" is vague at best, I fear -- most user-agents
> misleadingly seem to equate 1ex with .5em, the only exception being
> IE 5 for Macintosh which supposedly generates a bitmapped lowercase
> "x" and measures its height in pixels, AFAIK.
Though, if/when ex ever does become widely supported, it's probably a better
way to spec the size of type, since the x-height of a face can vary
drastically compared to its cap-height.
-Darrel
From: reply-to:to:subject:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:references;
Date: Wed, Dec 01 2004 8:13AM
Subject: Re: EMs and EXs
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On Wed, 1 Dec 2004 09:15:56 -0500, intern.wincog wrote:
> My question is about relative units. I've done a lot of reading on EM vs.
> Pixel, but lately I've been seeing references here and there to the EX unit,
> but not enough to determine if there is any browser support of this unit,
> what, exactly, it is (I did read the W3C spec, but their explanations
> usually elude me), and if it helps make pages that are more or less flexible
> than an EM-based page would be.
> Has anyone else explored EXs?
It is my exerience that ex is not widely used, though I don't know
why. I *seem* to recall that browser support for ex is not as
widespread as em, but don't hold me too that.
--
Bryce Fields, Web Developer
Where I Work: Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education
Where I Play: www.royalrodent.com
"Do or do not! There is no try!" -- Yoda