On 2007/09/21 09:22 (GMT-0400) Rowan @ Jetboy apparently typed: > I'm looking to use em or ex units for elastic layout on a new site. > mozillaZine (http://kb.mozillazine.org/Em_vs._ex) recommends ex's to avoid > rounding errors (in Moz), but other sites make veiled references to ex > problems with older browsers.
> Can anyone tell me what those problems are/were, and on which browsers? > Does anyone have any strong reasons to suggest using one unit over the > other? The premise of that article that 1ex=6px and 1em=10.06667 is bogus. 1em=the size of the base font (from the spec: the 'em' unit is equal to the computed value of the 'font-size' property of the element on which it is used), by default most often 12pt (which is 16px on nominally 96 DPI systems), or 16px directly. However, people can and do change their defaults. Mine is 20px. OTOH, 1ex is supposed to be the actual x-height, which varies among the various font families. http://dbaron.org/css/fonts/aspect_results http://www.barrypearson.co.uk/articles/text/aspect_values.htm Good browsers, such as Gecko, use the font's actual x-height, while bad browsers, such as IE6, ignore the actual x-height and use 1em/2. As a consequence, if you want maximum consistency across browserland, em should be much preferred over ex. http://www.xs4all.nl/~sbpoley/webmatters/emex.html -- "It yet remains a problem to be solved in human affairs, whether any free government can be permanent, where the public worship of God, and the support of religion, constitute no part of the policy or duty of the state in any assignable shape." Chief Justice Joseph Story Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 Felix Miata *** http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/ ______________________________________________________________________ css-discuss [EMAIL PROTECTED] 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/
