Low-level font commands (LaTeX2e unofficial reference manual (November 2018))

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### 4.4 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.

`\fontencoding{encoding}`

  Select the font encoding, the encoding of the output font. There are a large number of valid encodings. The most common are `OT1`, Knuth’s original encoding for Computer Modern (the default), and `T1`, also known as the Cork encoding, which has support for the accented characters used by the most widespread European languages (German, French, Italian, Polish and others), which allows TeX to hyphenate words containing accented letters. For more, see https://ctan.org/pkg/encguide.

`\fontfamily{family}`

  Select the font family. The web page http://www.tug.dk/FontCatalogue/ provides one way to browse through many of the fonts easily used with LaTeX. Here are examples of some common families.

  `pag` | Avant Garde
  `fvs` | Bitstream Vera Sans
  `pbk` | Bookman
  `bch` | Charter
  `ccr` | Computer Concrete
  `cmr` | Computer Modern
  `cmss` | Computer Modern Sans Serif
  `cmtt` | Computer Modern Typewriter
  `pcr` | Courier
  `phv` | Helvetica
  `fi4` | Inconsolata
  `lmr` | Latin Modern
  `lmss` | Latin Modern Sans
  `lmtt` | Latin Modern Typewriter
  `pnc` | New Century Schoolbook
  `ppl` | Palatino
  `ptm` | Times
  `uncl` | Uncial
  `put` | Utopia
  `pzc` | Zapf Chancery

`\fontseries{series}`

  Select the font series. A series combines a weight and a width. Typically, a font supports only a few of the possible combinations. Some common combined series values include:

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

  The possible values for weight, individually, are:

  `ul` | Ultra light
  `el` | Extra light
  `l` | Light
  `sl` | Semi light
  `m` | Medium (normal)
  `sb` | Semi bold
  `b` | Bold
  `eb` | Extra bold
  `ub` | Ultra bold

  The possible values for width, individually, are (the meaning and relationship of these terms varies with individual typefaces):

  `uc` | Ultra condensed
  `ec` | Extra condensed
  `c` | Condensed
  `sc` | Semi condensed
  `m` | Medium
  `sx` | Semi expanded
  `x` | Expanded
  `ex` | Extra expanded
  `ux` | Ultra expanded

  When forming the series string from the weight and width, drop the `m` that stands for medium weight or medium width, unless both weight and width are `m`, in which case use just one (‘``m``’).

`\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, and small caps are often missing as well.

`\fontsize{size}{skip}`

  Set the font size and the line spacing. The unit of both parameters defaults to points (`pt`). The line spacing is the nominal vertical space between lines, baseline to baseline. It is stored in the parameter `\baselineskip`. The default `\baselineskip` for the Computer Modern typeface is 1.2 times the `\fontsize`. Changing `\baselineskip` directly is inadvisable since its value is reset every time a size change happens; see `\baselinestretch`, next.

`\baselinestretch`

  LaTeX multiplies the line spacing by the value of the `\baselinestretch` parameter; the default factor is 1. A change takes effect when `\selectfont` (see below) is called. You can make a line skip change happen for the entire document, for instance doubling it, by doing `\renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{2.0}` in the preamble.

  However, the best way to double-space a document is to use the `setspace` package. In addition to offering a number of spacing options, this package keeps the line spacing single-spaced in places where that is typically desirable, such as footnotes and figure captions. See the package documentation.

`\linespread{factor}`

  Equivalent to `\renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{factor}`, and therefore must be followed by `\selectfont` to have any effect. Best specified in the preamble, or use the `setspace` package, as just described.

`\selectfont`

  The effects of the font commands described above do not happen until `\selectfont` is called, as in `\fontfamily{familyname}\selectfont`. It is often useful to put this in a macro:
  `\newcommand*{\myfont}{\fontfamily{familyname}\selectfont}`
  (see \newcommand & \renewcommand).

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

  The same as invoking `\fontencoding`, `\fontfamily`, `\fontseries` and `\fontshape` with the given parameters, followed by `\selectfont`. For example:

      \usefont{ot1}{cmr}{m}{n}

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