More on fonts

Introduction and font sizes

Latex's syntax for setting the font size and style is fairly simple. For example:

CODE

\documentclass{article}
                  \begin{document}
                  This is a very simple example, {\LARGE in which this text is set on a pretty
                  large font size}, and {\textsc this one, instead, has a different font.}
                  

                  \end{document}

The font sizes you set in the section you want your text to be in, are relative, and not absolute, meaning that they DO NOT relate to the general configuration of text size. Another example of (relative) text configuration is shown below:

CODE


                \documentclass{article}
                \begin{document}
                This is a very simple example, {\LARGE in which this text is set on a pretty
                  large font size}, and {\footnotesize this one, instead, is set on a pretty
                  small one.}
                  

              \end{document}

From the picture above, it can be noticed that there are different types of fonts on the Latex document.

Fonts families

Latex standard size font is the serif typeface, also known as Times New Roman, as you may notice from the document example. Other typefaces can be changed through some code you will have to insert. For example:

\documentclass{article}
              \begin{document}
              You are going to see a very interesting thing now, how
                \textsc{this sentence changed its style.}
                \sffamily
                This, instead, is another interesting point. Here, you are changing the absolute
                (so not relative) word style. This means that you are changing the font style from this
                sentence, to the end of the document.
                

                \end{document}

CODE

\documentclass{article}
              \begin{document}
              You are going to see a very interesting thing now, how
                \textsc{this sentence changed its style.}
                \sffamily
                This, instead, is another interesting point. Here, you are changing the absolute
                (so not relative) word style. This means that you are changing the font style from this
                sentence, to the end of the document.
                

                \end{document}

In order to set a sans font as default on the Latex document, the code to insert is:

\renewcommand{\familydefault}{\sfdefault}

If you instead, want to set the roman font as default on the Latex document, the code to insert is: \renewcommand{\familydefault}{\rmdefault}

The Reference Guide Font Size

There are several choices of font sizes in Latex, and below there all the possibile combinations, from the smallest to largest fonts: