should I use em only for text?

[morningdew]

Hi, it's me again. I hope it's okay to ask many questions

I am wondering: should I use em as a standard of measurement for other website elements as well in addition to font (e.g margin, padding, table)?

I understand that using em would make fonts resizable.

Should I use em all across the board for the sake of consistency? Or is it okay to use em for fonts and px for other elements?

Thank you in advance for your help.

[falkencreative]

I understand that using em would make fonts resizable.

Should I use em all across the board for the sake of consistency? Or is it okay to use em for fonts and px for other elements?

To quickly define "em": (wikidepdia)

 

An em is a unit of measurement in the field of typography. This unit defines the proportion of the letter width and height with respect to the point size of the current font. Originally the unit was derived from the width of the capital "M" in a particular typeface. This unit is not defined in terms of any specific typeface, and thus is the same for all fonts at a given point size.[1] So, 1 em in a 16 point typeface is 16 points.

Since an em is a measurement specifically related to typography (the art of arranging type), it's intended primarily for use when sizing your text. I wouldn't use it to size other parts of the page -- that's just too messy. Use ems for text and pixels or percentages for your layout.

[morningdew]

I see.. It's clear now. Thank you very much.

[akurtula]

i found this article very helpful as it kindof tests all the measurements that we can use for typography - but, the book "principles of beautiful web design" explain very well how to use the em (as i thing you need something like:

 

body{
font-size: 60%; // I THINK IS 60%;
}

 

in order for your em's to be more managable - but ye i strongly recomend you read that book from sitepoint.

[morningdew]

Hi Akurtula,

 

Thanks so much for the article link, I really appreciate it.

When you mentioned book from SitePoint, are you referring to CSS Anthology?

I see they have a couple of books on CSS.