<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> <html> <head> <title> em measurement </title> <style type='text/css' media='all'> body { border: 1em solid black; margin: 0; padding: 10px; } div { font-size: 24px; height: 3em; border: 1em solid black; } </style> </head> <body> The body's border is 1em thick. <div> This font is 24 pixels tall and this div is 3 ems tall, which results in a div 72 pixels tall (3 * 24 = 72). Its border is 1em thick, or 24 pixels thick. </div> </body> </html>