Term of the Moment
dual core
Redirected from: em dash
Definition: em
(1) (EMphasis) ADA-compliant code for rendering italics. See Americans with Disabilities Act.
(2) (EM) (ElectroMagnetic) See electromagnetic radiation.
(3) In typography, a unit of measure equal to the width of the capital letter "M" in a particular font. Ems are widely used in website typography as a basic unit of measure. Rather than using pixels, which is a fixed width on any screen, the default font size is set to ems, and all fonts on the page that are larger or smaller are designated as multiples or fractions of ems.
Em Dash, En Dash
The terms "em" and "en" are the dashes commonly found in typography, but which are not standard keyboard keys. An "em dash" (one em wide) is used to convey changes such as an abrupt break in thought, a digression or a change from one speaker to another. "En dashes" (width of letter N) are shorter and are used for ranges such as numbers and dates. Contrast with the hyphen, which is a regular text character used to separate telephone and account numbers.
Em and En Dashes in HTML
(2) (EM) (ElectroMagnetic) See electromagnetic radiation.
(3) In typography, a unit of measure equal to the width of the capital letter "M" in a particular font. Ems are widely used in website typography as a basic unit of measure. Rather than using pixels, which is a fixed width on any screen, the default font size is set to ems, and all fonts on the page that are larger or smaller are designated as multiples or fractions of ems.
Em Dash, En Dash
The terms "em" and "en" are the dashes commonly found in typography, but which are not standard keyboard keys. An "em dash" (one em wide) is used to convey changes such as an abrupt break in thought, a digression or a change from one speaker to another. "En dashes" (width of letter N) are shorter and are used for ranges such as numbers and dates. Contrast with the hyphen, which is a regular text character used to separate telephone and account numbers.
Notice the different widths of the dashes in this example. On Web pages, a hyphen is just a hyphen character, but the mdash and ndash codes create dashes the width of an "m" or "n."