[Tex/LaTex] Did the “Computer Modern” font families become a default because they’re well tested and proven, or chance

book-designfonts

I'm deciding on the Font Families to use in LyX for a planned novel. Computer Modern is the default (Roman, Sans and Typewriter). I'm interested in the number of font faces and the versatility in styling of text. The number one priority is the ease of reading lots of text, and it not appearing unusual or odd. I don't want something "unique" looking, but rather something that the reader would never think twice about…because they're too busy reading to notice an artistic font. I hear about everyone having a personal favorite and recommending this or that, but never have heard once, "stick with Computer Modern font families"

I can't find a reason to change the fonts from default. After looking over test prints, Computer Modern Roman seems excellent to my eye. I particularly like that there is a very noticeable and distinguishing contrast between regular and bold text. The italics is also noticeably different from a similarly curvy but more vertical font face that I think would be great to use with inset monologues and poetry sections, and there is a decent small caps face.

If someone were to recommend another font, I'd hope its as versatile and readable. I haven't looked at the Computer Modern Italics or Computer Modern Typewriter font families, and so I don't have an opinion on them yet.

MY QUESTION is simple: Did these font families become the default because they've withstood the test of time and no one has been able to argue that CM is inferior to another font family. Or, like so many other traditions, is it the default because it was the first, and no one ever bothered to change it to something that perhaps had the consensus of being an improvement.

And so, understanding that this isn't a discussion forum, but limited to question and answers, please let me know if the Computer Modern font families have ever been lambasted for having defects, or for having a general consensus of being "unreadable" for novel length works.

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Computer modern is the default font for TeX because it was created at (more or less) the same time as TeX by the same author, specifically for that purpose. For some time it was essentially the only font set practically usable with the TeX system.

The defaults in LaTeX or plain TeX never change as you should be able to process a document from last century and get the same page breaks.

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[Tex/LaTex] How to know if a math font fits well with the text font

The Elements of Typographic Style is generally a very good source for typographical ideas. However it tells little about math fonts.

Here is some my personal opinions on math fonts.

First the weight should match the text fonts. You won't want the math, especially the inline math looks too bold or too light compared to the text fonts. The colour of the whole page should be even. By colour, we mean distribution of the black ink across the page. This is perhaps the most basic but yet most difficult part of all typographical work. (This is also why we need micro typography, etc.) In short, if you have a glance at the page, there should be neither holes nor black island due the improper weights of the math fonts.
Second, the math font should distinguish itself from the text. When the reader read the text with some inline math, he or she expect to recognise those math symbols easily. That is a math letter should stands like a math letter, rather than a normal text. This is perhaps the reason why we typeset math in italics at the first place. However, a math fonts too different from the text font surely is not a good choice. A math font with modest slope of italics while having similar strokes, serifs, etc. is usually a good choice. Often this is the case when the math fonts and text fonts come from the same family or similar design. On the other hand, this does not mean a font with little slope or even an upright fonts cannot be used as math fonts. For example, the Euler math blends perfect with Palatino. But if there is a Euler text fonts, I personally don't believe it will be a good combination, because the math and text are almost the same.
Third, there are some subtile considerations, for example the shapes of letter v in math should distinguish itself from the greek letter nu, etc. The completeness and subtle perfection of a math font is a difficult task. This is why there are very few good math fonts out there. mathdesign, the one you use has lots symbols, but the details of its letter forms is not tuned well. Personally I will prefer a font with tuned detailed of every glyph it has, rather than a fonts with lots symbols, but many of them looks ugly. However, any fonts serves the purpose of writing after all, so if you absolutely need a symbol from a certain fonts, you should use it anyway.
Fourth, the math fonts and text fonts should have similar x height. Though this can be done with scaling, it should be noted that scaling a fonts down will decrease its weight, scaling it up will increase the weight. It is a simple math, if you scale up the fonts by a factor 2, then the area of the letter occupying is increased by a factor 4. So the x-height and the weight (my first opinion) cannot be considered separately.

There are some other sources you can turn to learn about math fonts design and thus its choice.

Understanding the æsthetics of math typesetting

Fonts for mathematics

Designing math fonts

For your other questions, I believe they are actually the same as the math font problem. The key is the weight, which affect the colour the page most directly. Then you can consider other things. For example, you may want they looks differently so they can serve different purpose.

[Tex/LaTex] Using many typewriter fonts in a single document

If you want to run a test document which includes the typewriter font alongside other styles (e.g. to test how well a particular typewriter font works with a serif used for body text) or you just don't like typing, this example provides a couple of commands for convenience:

\documentclass[a4paper,11pt]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

\newcommand*\ttfontstotry{cmtt,cmvtt,lcmtt,lmvtt,pcr,txtt}% add additional families here, separated by commas
\makeatletter
  \newcommand*\myttfontstest{% defines the actual test command
    \@for \xx:=\ttfontstotry \do {% loops through the families
      \par family: \xx\par
      \renewcommand*\ttdefault{\xx}%
      \input{test}%
    }%
  }
\makeatother

\begin{filecontents}{test.tex}% just for testing
    ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

    abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

    Oh, jinxed quartz of black sphinx, go hear my vow!

    {\ttfamily
      ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

      abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

      Oh, jinxed quartz of black sphinx, go hear my vow!}

\end{filecontents}


\begin{document}

  \myttfontstest% try them out!

\end{document}

typewriter variants with default serif

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[Tex/LaTex] How to know if a math font fits well with the text font

[Tex/LaTex] Using many typewriter fonts in a single document

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