change size of \ref to match text

Question

How to change font size of \ref shows how to change the font size of references everywhere. What if I want to change it to match the surrounding text?

Here's a MWE.

\documentclass[justified]{tufte-handout}

\renewcommand{\thefootnote}{{\footnotesize[\emph{\alph{footnote}}]}}

\begin{document}
\title{Tufte Test}
\maketitle

I want this footnote marker to be \verb|\footnotesize|:\footnote{\label{fn}I.e. {\tt\textbackslash thefootnote} is redefined to emit {\tt \textbackslash footnotesize[\textbackslash emph\{\textbackslash alph\{footnote\}\}]}\ldots}  $\leftarrow$ And it works.

\vspace{2cm}

\noindent{\normalsize \ref{fn}}: $\leftarrow$ But then writing \verb|{\normalsize \ref{fn}}|, just gives me ``{\normalsize \ref{fn}},''  whereas I would wanted to see something like ``[a]'' there.

\end{document}

Answer 1

Here, thanks to the hint in David Carlisle's comment, is something that does what I was aiming for. Once I knew what to look for I found the approach described in Footnote mark in regular or other font styles.

\documentclass[justified]{tufte-handout}

\renewcommand{\thefootnote}{[\emph{\alph{footnote}}]}

\makeatletter%
\long\def\@makefnmark{%
\hbox {\@textsuperscript {\footnotesize \@thefnmark }}}%
\makeatother

\makeatletter%
\long\def\@makefntext#1{%
\@textsuperscript {\@tufte@sidenote@font \@thefnmark }\,\footnotelayout #1}%
\makeatother

\begin{document}
\title{Tufte Test}
\maketitle

%\makeatletter\show\@makefnmark\makeatother <- will depend on class
%\makeatletter\show\@makefntext\makeatother

I want this footnote marker to be \verb|\footnotesize|:\footnote{\label{fn}This
solution redefines both {\tt \textbackslash @thefnmark} and
{\tt \textbackslash @makefntext}.}  $\leftarrow$ And it works.

\vspace{2cm}

\noindent Now \ref{fn} (produced by ``\verb|\ref{fn}|'') matches the
 text.\footnote{\label{fn2}: Even in here; see \ref{fn}.}
\end{document}