Advance measure

The advance measure is the total space the glyph takes, either horizontally or vertically, depending on the current writing direction. It is equal to the distance traveled by the cursor, placed directly in front of and then shifted behind the character.

This term is used in the definition of several CSS {{cssxref("<length>")}} units. The advance measure of unit ch is either the width or height of character "0" in the given typeface, depending on whether the horizontal or vertical axis is currently used. A similar advance measure of unit ic is the width or height of the "水" character.

See also

• {{cssxref("<length>")}}
• Learn: CSS values and units
• TextMetrics API