When to use em, %, px?

[dtribble]

Hi all,

I'm in the process of reading Eric Meyer's "Eric Meyer on CSS" in order to bring my knowledge of CSS to the next level. I've always used absolute pixels in my css for sizing fonts, borders, padding, margins. After reading this book, I'm convinced that I need to start using relative measurements but I'm confused about them.

I'm hoping someone can answer the following questions:

Which units should I use for each type of element (fonts, borders, padding, margins, etc.)? Does it vary by situation. If so, how?

Meyer seems to use percentages for font sizing. Is this preferable over em's?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Damon

[bondjamesbond]

Hi,

Personally myself I use em's for fonts, px for measurements like borders, padding, margin etc and pt for fonts in my print style sheet.

You can spend a long time (I know..) researching all the different methods, each have their own advantages and disadvantages. Then there is the problem of font sizes on the Mac..It's enough to drive your crazy! So in the end I decided I'd had enough and settled with the units above.