diff --git a/spec/app/editor-spec.coffee b/spec/app/editor-spec.coffee
index e9c68d638..5a6e4df1f 100644
--- a/spec/app/editor-spec.coffee
+++ b/spec/app/editor-spec.coffee
@@ -633,7 +633,7 @@ describe "Editor", ->
         expect(editor.renderedLines.find(".line").length).toBeGreaterThan originalLineCount
 
       describe "when the editor is detached", ->
-        it "updates the font-size correctly and recalculates the dimensions by placing the rendered lines on the DOM", ->
+        it "redraws the editor according to the new font size when it is reattached", ->
           rootView.attachToDom()
           rootView.height(200)
           rootView.width(200)
diff --git a/src/app/editor.coffee b/src/app/editor.coffee
index 48690aab6..2fd0086ce 100644
--- a/src/app/editor.coffee
+++ b/src/app/editor.coffee
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@ class Editor extends View
   pendingChanges: null
   newCursors: null
   newSelections: null
+  redrawOnReattach: false
 
   @deserialize: (state, rootView) ->
     editor = new Editor(mini: state.mini, deserializing: true)
@@ -447,7 +448,9 @@ class Editor extends View
       @syncCursorAnimations()
 
   afterAttach: (onDom) ->
-    return if @attached or not onDom
+    return unless onDom
+    @redraw() if @redrawOnReattach
+    return if @attached
     @attached = true
     @calculateDimensions()
     @hiddenInput.width(@charWidth)
@@ -726,7 +729,12 @@ class Editor extends View
       headTag.append styleTag
 
     styleTag.text(".editor {font-size: #{fontSize}px}")
-    @redraw()
+
+    if @isOnDom()
+      @redraw()
+    else
+      @redrawOnReattach = true
+
 
   getFontSize: ->
     parseInt(@css("font-size"))
@@ -745,7 +753,9 @@ class Editor extends View
   getFontFamily: -> @css("font-family")
 
   redraw: ->
+    return unless @hasParent()
     return unless @attached
+    @redrawOnReattach = false
     @calculateDimensions()
     @updatePaddingOfRenderedLines()
     @updateLayerDimensions()
@@ -842,10 +852,6 @@ class Editor extends View
     @overlayer.append(view)
 
   calculateDimensions: ->
-    if not @isOnDom()
-      detachedEditorParent = _.last(@parents()) ? this
-      $(document.body).append(detachedEditorParent)
-
     fragment = $('<pre class="line" style="position: absolute; visibility: hidden;"><span>x</span></div>')
     @renderedLines.append(fragment)
 
@@ -857,8 +863,6 @@ class Editor extends View
     @height(@lineHeight) if @mini
     fragment.remove()
 
-    $(detachedEditorParent).detach()
-
   updateLayerDimensions: ->
     @gutter.calculateWidth()