Hi folks,
My first post, since I've worked in print longer than web. In print, an em (and en) are mostly used to describe dashes (of the width of M and N) in a font. So they are appropriate to the task when used for that. They have been slightly redefined for the web (since an en is not always half an em).
Hi Marilyn,
To add to your posting: and the capital M or roman m are nowadays not really an em or en wide.
An “em” is a unit of measurement defined as the point size of the font—12 point type uses a 12 point “em.” An “en” is one-half of an “em.” http://www.alistapart.com/articles/emen/
An excellent explanation of the em and en units:
<http://css.nu/articles/typograph1-en.html#Ch23>
As always, someone has dug up al the idiosyncrasies that made id from the physical world to the digital space. :-)
Jeroen
-- vizi fotografie & grafisch ontwerp - http://www.vizi.nl/
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