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CSS

Posted by Loftur Einarsson
Loftur Einarsson
3,591 Points

Responsive design and font-size

Does a font-size set to 1em from 16px ever scale down below 16px? If elements are supposed to be proportional how does that work for font-sizes?

2 Answers

Stanley Brooks
Stanley Brooks
19,197 Points
Stanley Brooks
Stanley Brooks
19,197 Points

The em unit is basted on the font-size of the parent element. This means that the child is always dependent on the parent element and will scale only when it is changed. For your question, the answer is yes. if set the font-size of a parent element to 12px for example, then any of the children elements that use em will change to 1em = 12px.

you should checkout this very useful web typography course that I am currently taking, it's been really great.

https://teamtreehouse.com/library/web-typography/basic-web-typography/fontsizing-px-em-and-rem

and

https://teamtreehouse.com/library/web-typography/basic-web-typography/fontsizing-px-em-and-rem-part-2

Loftur Einarsson
Loftur Einarsson
3,591 Points
Loftur Einarsson
Loftur Einarsson
3,591 Points

But the said parent element of 12px will prevent the font-size from going below 12px in a small display?

Thanks