Strange Unit em - same as inch? on XSLT-Fo format

**jacek** · 13th July 2007, 22:05

1 em represents the width of "m" and its exact value in points depends on the font you choose.

There's also 1 ex, which is equal to height of "x".

**patrik08** · 13th July 2007, 22:09

Originally Posted by jacek

1 em represents the width of "m" and its exact value in points depends on the font you choose.
There's also 1 ex, which is equal to height of "x".

Ahh... 10em = 10pt depends on the font? i hope true type stay same.... tanks..

**wysota** · 15th July 2007, 23:46

No, it's like Jacek said. It'll be easier to explain it with ex - if you have a font that is 12pt high then 1ex will be about 8pt. As "m" is the widest character for proportional fonts, the width of "m" will have a larger value (in points) than the width of "i", so you can't just say that your font is "8 points wide" (unless the font is monospaced, like Courier), but you can say that its "m" glyph is 12 points wide.