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CSS CSS Basics Understanding Values and Units Em and Rem Units

Posted by Kara Myers
Kara Myers
2,036 Points

Why don't I multiply the font size of html, header, and h3 to get the px size?

In the example in the previous slide, it was suggested that em units multiply the font size of each parent unit.

style.css 
/* Complete the challenge by writing CSS below */

html {
  font-size: 16px;
}

header {
  font-size: 1.5em;
}

.heading {
  font-size: 5rem;
}

h2 {
  font-size: 3em; 
}
index.html 
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
  <title>Developer Diane: Resume</title>
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="page.css">
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css">
</head>
<body>
  <main>
    <header>
      <div id="header-box">
        <h1 class="heading">Developer Diane: Resume</h1>
        <address>
          <p>website: developerdiane.com</p>
          <p>email: diane@developerdiane.com</p>
        </address>
        <img src="developer-diane.jpg" alt="Developer Diane coding on her laptop.">
      </div>
    </header>          
    <section id="education">
      <h2>Education</h2>          
      <ul>
        <li>
          <h3><a href="https://teamtreehouse.com">Treehouse</a></h3>
          <p>Front End <em>Web Development</em> Techdegree</p>
          <p class="date special">Graduated January 2020</p>
        </li>
      </ul>
    </section>
    <section id="experience">
      <h2>Experience</h2>
      <ul>
        <li>
          <h3>Super Web Design Shop</h3>
          <p>Junior Developer</p>
          <p class="date special">February 2020-present</p>
        </li>
        <li>
          <h3>Pretty Good Websites, Inc.</h3>
          <p>Web Development Intern</p>
          <p class="date">July 2019-January 2020</p>
        </li>
      </ul>
    </section>
    <section>
      <h2>Skills</h2>
      <ul id="skills-list">
        <li class="top-skill">HTML</li>
        <li>CSS</li>
        <li class="top-skill" id="proud">JavaScript</li>
        <li>Git</li>
        <li>Bootstrap</li>
        <li class="top-skill">Mobile Web Development</li>
        <li>Accessibility</li>
      </ul>
    </section>
    <section>
      <h2>Awards and Achievements</h2>
      <ol>
        <li>Dev Ninja Award, November 2020</li>
        <li>Developer of the Month, October 2019</li>
        <li>Achieved rating of 6 kyu on <a href="https://www.codewars.com/">Codewars</a></li>
        <li>Certified Accessibility Specialist</li>
      </ol>
    </section>
    <footer>Ā©2020 Developer Diane.</footer>
  </main>
</body>
</html>
wc93
wc93
25,725 Points

ems are relative to the parent which in this case is <h2> which is set to 3rem or 48 px.

1 Answer

Alan Brown
Alan Brown
20,524 Points
Alan Brown
Alan Brown
20,524 Points

There are a number of conditions where the base font size could change. Setting a base font size and ems, or rems, for your elements means you can adjust the scale of all your element font sizes in one swoop.

Example 1: You have a a side bar on your side which needs to be smaller. The sidebar could for instance change the font size to 0.75em (12px). All the .heading, header and h2 tags inside will scale down proportionally.

Example 2: The typescale for mobile and desktop designs can responsively change the base font size. In this scenario you can use the em multiplier on a different font size for mobile devices and desktop with media queries.