Adjust relative font size of *all* monospaced text

fontsfontsizetypewriter

By default, LaTeX makes monospaced text rather large relative to the default serif ("roman") text. This is especially pronounced when choosing custom fonts, e.g.

\usepackage{fouriernc}
\usepackage{DejavuSansMono}

Is there some way to rescale just the monospaced fonts across the document, regardless of the context?

Example document

enter image description here

\documentclass[12pt]{scrartcl}
\usepackage[scale=0.8, a4paper]{geometry}
\usepackage[hidelinks]{hyperref}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{upquote} % fix rendering of quotes in verbatim context
\usepackage{tcolorbox}
\tcbuselibrary{listings}
\newtcblisting{codeblock}{
    arc=2pt,
    listing only,
    boxrule=0pt,
    bottom=-8pt,
    top=-5pt,
    colback=black!5,
    colframe=black!5,
    listing options={
        breaklines=true,
        columns=fullflexible, % needed for copy-pasting
        basicstyle=\ttfamily\color{black!70},
    },
}

\usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc}
% \usepackage{lmodern}
\usepackage{fouriernc}
\usepackage{DejaVuSansMono}

\begin{document}



\section{Base situation}

\begin{minipage}{\linewidth}
Choosing the combination of \verb|fouriernc| the relative font size of inline \verb|\verb| test and inline \texttt{\string\texttt} text is too large. The issue is more pronounced when enabling \verb|DejavuSansMono|, but to a lesser degree present without. Likewise the contents of
\begin{verbatim}
verbatim
environment
\end{verbatim}
and the self-defined

\begin{codeblock}
codeblock
environment
\end{codeblock}
are too large.\footnote{It also should work in \texttt{\string\footnote} context.}
\end{minipage}


\section{Half-fixes}

The issue can be partly solved on a case-by-case basis, but this is undesirable. For instance, setting \verb|\verbatim@font|. 

\makeatletter
\renewcommand\verbatim@font{{\scriptsize}\ttfamily}
\makeatother

For demonstration, here \verb|\verbatim@font| includes \verb|\scriptsize|, which does however not affect \texttt{\string\texttt}. This also affects the default
\begin{verbatim}
verbatim
environment
\end{verbatim}
but not the self-defined
\begin{codeblock}
codeblock
environment
\end{codeblock}
\begin{minipage}{\linewidth}
\footnote{In a footnote, the sizing would be anyway wrong, because {\csname verbatim@font\endcsname\string\scriptsize} is too large as font size correction for monospaced text here.}
\end{minipage}

As a consequence adjustments of the font size have to made in many different places.

\end{document}

Best Answer

I'm afraid you're starting from a false premise. Compare the standard Computer Modern fonts:

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

Abc \texttt{Abc} Abc

\end{document}

enter image description here

You can see that the monospaced font is smaller than the Roman counterpart. However, several monospaced fonts have a rather large design size.

On the other hand, most font packages allow for a scale or scaled option and DejaVuSansMono is no exception.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fouriernc}
\usepackage[scaled=0.85]{DejaVuSansMono}

\begin{document}

Abc \texttt{Abc} Abc

\end{document}

enter image description here

Not the best match to my eye, but it's personal preference.

Unrelated: the utf8x option to inputenc refers to an obsolete and unsupported package. Remove the call to inputenc (unless you have a very old TeX distribution).

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