[thelist] CSS/em unit

John:

Obviously, you must know that the point of em is to size type based on the
default type size of the default font on a particular machine. So, the first
question you need to answer concerns the default font size of the browsers on
each machine on which you're testing. Though I should say, of course, the
resolution of each monitor is also a contributing factor; but, I assuming that
you mean "showing up larger" relative to the other elements of the page.

Another extremely important factor will be the fonts themselves. Not only may
you be seeing Helvetica on the Mac and Arial on your PC, the same font -- Arial,
for example -- may be from two different type houses or designers. The x-height
of the font you're using makes a huge difference. Times New Roman has a *much*
smaller x-height than Arial, making it seem much smaller and actually taking up
less horizontal space (remember that type size is based on vertical
measurements).

As an aside, has anyone here ever done type length for page dummies? Do you
remember calculating how much text was needed by using those tables with
individual font sizes and a calculator? I only did this in my college Journalism
classes, because the teachers thought it was important that we knew where we
were coming from (it was only two or three years ago). But, Yikes! and thank god
for Steve Jobs.

Anyway, the last thing I wanted to say was use the fact that the font sizes show
up differently to your advantage -- I mean, the whole point of using em is to
allow users to change presentation based on their preferences. I say,
deliberately turn up the font size on one machine or the other to make sure your
design isn't dependent on an arbitrary variable like font size.

HTH.

Teresa