summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/Master/texmf-doc/doc/english/FAQ-en/html/FAQ-newfont.html
blob: 0feb24ebd1503ce3934825329188c71e34f34092 (plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
<head>
<title>UK TeX FAQ -- question label newfont</title>
</head><body>
<h3>What&rsquo;s wrong with <code>\</code><code>newfont</code>?</h3>
<p>If all else fails, you <em>can</em> specify a font using the LaTeX
<code>\</code><code>newfont</code> command.  The font so specified doesn&rsquo;t fit into the
LaTeX font selection mechanism, but the technique can be tempting
under several circumstances.  The command is merely the thinnest of
wrappers around the <code>\</code><code>font</code> primitive, and suffers from exactly the
problems with font encodings and sizes that are outlined in
<a href="FAQ-plninltx.html">using Plain TeX commands in \LaTeX</a>.
<p>Almost all fonts, nowadays, are provided with LaTeX control files
(if they&rsquo;re adapted to TeX at all).  There is therefore little gain
in using <code>\</code><code>newfont</code>.
<p>One temptation arises from the way that LaTeX restricts the sizes
of fonts.  In fact, this restriction only significantly applies to the
default (Computer Modern) and the Cork-encoded (T1) EC fonts, but it
is widely considered to be anomalous, nowadays.  In recognition of
this problem, there is a package <i>fix-cm</i> which will allow you
to use the fonts, within LaTeX, at any size you choose.  If you&rsquo;re
not using scaleable versions of the fonts, most modern distributions
will just generate an appropriate bitmap for you.
<p>So, suppose you want to use Computer Modern Roman at 30 points, you
might be tempted to write:
<blockquote>
<pre>
\newfont{\bigfont}{cmr10 at 30pt}
{\bigfont Huge text}
</pre>
</blockquote><p>
which will indeed work, but will actually produce a worse result than
<blockquote>
<pre>
\usepackage{fix-cm}
...
{%
  \fontsize{30}{36}\selectfont
  Huge text%
}
</pre>
</blockquote><p>
Note that the <i>fix-cm</i> package was not distributed until the
December 2003 edition of LaTeX; if you have an older distribution,
the packages <i>type1cm</i> (for CM fonts) and
<i>type1ec</i> (for EC fonts) are available.
<dl>
<dt><tt><i>fix-cm.sty</i></tt><dd>Distributed as part of <a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/base.zip">macros/latex/base</a> (<a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/base.tar.gz">gzipped tar</a>, <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/base/">browse</a>) (an unpacked
  version is available at <a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/unpacked/fix-cm.sty">macros/latex/unpacked/fix-cm.sty</a>)
<dt><tt><i>type1cm.sty</i></tt><dd><a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/type1cm.zip">macros/latex/contrib/type1cm</a> (<a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/type1cm.tar.gz">gzipped tar</a>, <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/type1cm/">browse</a>)
<dt><tt><i>type1ec.sty</i></tt><dd><a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/ps-type1/cm-super/type1ec.sty">fonts/ps-type1/cm-super/type1ec.sty</a> (the package is actually part of
  the <a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/ps-type1/cm-super.zip">fonts/ps-type1/cm-super</a> (<a href="ftp://cam.ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/ps-type1/cm-super.tar.gz">gzipped tar</a>, <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/fonts/ps-type1/cm-super/">browse</a>) distribution, but it works happily in
  the absence of the scaled fonts)
</dl>
<p>
<p>
<p><p><p><p>This question on the Web: <a href="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=newfont">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=newfont</a>
</body>