Under a fixed width layout, what is the relationship between the font size and the letter width?

Font size vs. letter width in fixed width layout: a delicate balance

In web design, text typesetting in fixed-width containers often faces challenges. Especially for English text, due to the difference in letter widths, the choice of font size directly affects the text's line breaking behavior. The seemingly simple fixed-width layout actually hides the complex nonlinear relationship between font size and letter width.

For example, in a 300px wide container, using a 20px font size, the letter "g" may cause a text to be broken, while the letter "x" may not. This is because most commonly used fonts (such as Times New Roman, Arial) are proportional fonts, not monospace fonts.

Some developers have also found this problem in practice: text wraps when using some letters, while others don't. Measurement of letter width confirms this observation, but the exact font size and letter width conversion relationship are difficult to find.

The reason is that the letter width is not a simple linear proportional relationship with the font size. It depends on the characteristics of the selected font. To achieve a monospace effect, you need to select a monospace font, such as Courier New or Consolas.

If you need to ensure that English words are not unable to wrap because a single letter is too wide, the CSS attribute word-wrap: break-word; is very useful. This property forces words to break lines when necessary to avoid text overflowing the container due to letter width issues.

Therefore, the key to solving this problem is:

1. Choose the right font: Universal fonts can avoid the problem of inconsistent letter widths.
2. Using CSS attributes: word-wrap: break-word; it can effectively control word line wraps to achieve more accurate layout.

By rationally selecting fonts and using CSS attributes, you can effectively control the layout effect of text under fixed width layout to avoid troubles caused by letter width differences.

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