Font usage

 

1. Setting nice fonts

A variety of fonts are available in LaTeX, especially if the system is based on TeX Live. Among the simplest ways is, for instance, to include:

\usepackage{txfonts}

to use Times, or

\usepackage{pxfonts}

to use Palatino.

However, these packages are not modern anymore; more elegant alternatives are available (see here for an almost complete list of fonts available on TeX Live or any other systems).

Below are my favorite examples.

• More elegant Palatino:

  \usepackage[sc]{mathpazo}
  \linespread{1.05}         % Palladio needs more leading (space between lines)
  \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
  

• Kpfonts (Palatino-like)

  \usepackage{kpfonts}
  

• Libertine (used e.g. in Wikipedia on each sectioning):

\usepackage{libertine}
\usepackage{libertinust1math}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

• STIX (Scientific and Technical Information Exchange; Times-based but much more elegant than txfonts package):

  \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
  \usepackage{stix}
  

• Utopia (Adobe):

  \usepackage{fourier}
  \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
  

  or:

  \usepackage[adobe-utopia]{mathdesign}
  \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
  

• Crimson (with math support):

  \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
  \usepackage{cochineal}
  \usepackage[cochineal,varg]{newtxmath}
  

• Garamond (but it’s a bit thin and less reader-friendly):

  \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
  \usepackage{garamondx}
  \usepackage[garamondx,cmbraces]{newtxmath}
  

  or:

  \usepackage[urw-garamond]{mathdesign}
  \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
  

• Baskervald (Baskerville-based, thicker font)

  \usepackage[lf]{Baskervaldx} % lining figures
  \usepackage[bigdelims,vvarbb]{newtxmath} % math italic letters from Nimbus Roman
  \usepackage[cal=boondoxo]{mathalfa} % mathcal from STIX, unslanted a bit
  \renewcommand*\oldstylenums[1]{\textosf{#1}}
  

• The mathdesign package allows options for (1) Garamond, (2) Utopia, and (3) Charter; for instance:

  \usepackage[charter]{mathdesign}
  

2. Changing section fonts and the colors

I prefer to use titlesec.sty to change the subsection font e.g. from serif to sans-serif. For instance,

\usepackage[dvipsnames]{xcolor} %to change color
\usepackage{titlesec}
\titleformat*{\subsubsection}
{\sffamily
\itshape
\bfseries\color{Fuchsia}}

can make the subsubsection font look like:

with

\subsubsection{Research question}

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