Low-level font commands

These commands are primarily intended for writers of macros and packages. The commands listed here are only a subset of the available ones. For full details, you should consult Chapter 7 of The LaTeX Companion.

\fontencoding{enc}

Select font encoding. Valid encodings include OT1 and T1.

\fontfamily{family}

Select font family. Valid families include:

• cmr for Computer Modern Roman
• cmss for Computer Modern Sans Serif
• cmtt for Computer Modern Typewriter

and numerous others.

\fontseries{series}

Select font series. Valid series include:

• m Medium (normal)
• b Bold
• c Condensed
• bc Bold condensed
• bx Bold extended

and various other combinations.

\fontshape{shape}

Select font shape. Valid shapes are:

• n Upright (normal)
• it Italic
• sl Slanted (oblique)
• sc Small caps
• ui Upright italics
• ol Outline

The two last shapes are not available for most font families.

\fontsize{size}{skip}

Set font size. The first parameter is the font size to switch to; the second is the \baselineskip to use. The unit of both parameters defaults to pt. A rule of thumb is that the baselineskip should be 1.2 times the font size.

\selectfont

The changes made by calling the four font commands described above do not come into effect until \selectfont is called.

\usefont{enc}{family}{series}{shape}

Equivalent to calling \fontencoding, \fontfamily, \fontseries and \fontshape with the given parameters, followed by \selectfont.