Margin discrepancies when using em units

Currently, I am utilizing an em-based margin for items within a menu that are homogeneous in terms of markup, class, and id. It appears that the margins for each of these items should be rendered the same. However, some are displaying as 1px while others are showing as 2px. There may be a pattern to this discrepancy, such as every second item being rendered as 2px, but I am unable to discern one.

This rendering behavior has been noticed in both Firefox and Chrome on Linux and OS X.

My assumption is that this issue arises from the calculated value of these margins being a decimal number (e.g. 1.6px according to Chrome DevTools), but it is unclear why the same decimal number is not consistently rendered.

Below is a link to a codepen example, as well as an enlarged screenshot depicting the problem.

http://codepen.io/anon/pen/KoAbl

Answer №1

Just a thought, but perhaps it rounds to the nearest whole pixel (1.6 => 2), and then adjusts for that rounding in the subsequent padding. For instance, if the previous padding was 0.4 pixels too much, the next padding would be 1.6 - 0.4 = 1.2 pixels, which rounds to 1 pixel.

The following calculation would then be 1.6 + 0.2, resulting in 1.8, which rounds to 2. Subsequently, 1.6 - 0.2 equals 1.4, rounded down to 1. The pattern continues with 1.6 + 0.4 = 2, completing the cycle.

Based on this reasoning, the sequence of paddings would be 2px, 1px, 2px, 1px, 2px (repeated) 2px, 1px, 2px, 1px, 2px, which appears to match the paddings you are experiencing.

Answer №2

The exact calculation of em's remains a mystery to me. However, it seems to be related to the rounding of the font-size. If you adjust the font-size to 10px or 20px, the inconsistency disappears. But as soon as you set it to 15px, the issue resurfaces.

You can find more information on this topic in the following post: CSS: Em rounding error

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