[texhax] TeX Queries 4: Overfull boxes

[Philip TAYLOR]

Joel C. Salomon wrote:
 > That's not to say that the character called the "em dash" will be
 > exactly 1 em long; font designers can play all sorts of typographical
 > games. But TeX, when given lengths measured in ems, will use the size
 > of the font.

Not always :


\font \xviiirm = cmr10 at 18 true pt
\xviiirm
\dimen 0 = 1 em
\message {1 em = \the \dimen 0 }
\end

(./untitled-1.tex 1 em = 18.00005pt )


\font \xviiirm = cmtt10 at 18 true pt
\xviiirm
\dimen 0 = 1 em
\message {1 em = \the \dimen 0 }
\end

(./untitled-1.tex 1 em = 18.89983pt )


Philip Taylor