I am working in LyX (compiled with MiKTeX) on Windows. I am a newbie so
I am wondering how can I manually set the font (like entering in a number
as you would in Microsoft Word).
[Tex/LaTex] Difference between LaTeX and Word in setting font size
fontsizelyx
Related Solutions
As per the discussion, one way of achieving this goal is to redefine the "shorthand" length dimension used throughout the standard document classes. Here's an extract of the relevant code snippets from ltxplain.dtx containing the abbreviated definition:
\newdimen\p@ \p@=1pt % this saves macro space and time
As such, issuing
\makeatletter\p@=1bp\makeatother% or \setlength{\p@}{1bp}
modifies the default 1pt reference to 1bp. Looking at article.cls (although other document classes are similar), many related lengths are set using \p@. Here's an excerpt:
\setlength\lineskip{1\p@}
\setlength\normallineskip{1\p@}
...
\setlength\parskip{0\p@ \@plus \p@}
...
\setlength\arraycolsep{5\p@}
\setlength\tabcolsep{6\p@}
\setlength\arrayrulewidth{.4\p@}
\setlength\doublerulesep{2\p@}
...
\setlength\fboxsep{3\p@}
\setlength\fboxrule{.4\p@}
...
\setlength\abovecaptionskip{10\p@}
\setlength\belowcaptionskip{0\p@}
...
\renewcommand\footnoterule{%
\kern-3\p@
\hrule\@width.4\columnwidth
\kern2.6\p@}
...
\setlength\columnsep{10\p@}
\setlength\columnseprule{0\p@}
including some macros like \maketitle and things associated with indexing. So, issue the size change before \documentclass in order to let the effect filter through. You would still "miss" some \p@-related definitions though, as may be seen by viewing latex.ltx.
As a quick way to check the difference in the default pt and modified bp measurements (in lmodern) is using printlen. Here's a brief example with focus on the character X:
\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{lmodern}% http://ctan.org/pkg/lmodern
\usepackage{printlen}% http://ctan.org/pkg/printlen
\begin{document}
\uselengthunit{pt} \renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.5}%
\setbox0=\hbox{\fontsize{12pt}{14pt}\selectfont X}% pt measurement
\setbox1=\hbox{\fontsize{12bp}{14pt}\selectfont X}% bp measurement
\begin{tabular}{ccc}
X & width & height \\ \hline
\verb!pt! & \printlength{\wd0} & \printlength{\ht0} \\
\verb!bp! & \printlength{\wd1} & \printlength{\ht1} \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{document}
The difference in width is around 0.04pt and 0.03pt in height, which translates to about 0.01mm - a roughly 0.3% increase (~ 72.27/72-1). This is virtually negligible to the naked eye at regular font sizes.
Paragraph construction is altered using 12bp rather than 12pt, and therefore also hyphenation. Here's an example showing the effect:
\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[margin=0.5in]{geometry}% http://ctan.org/pkg/geometry
\usepackage{lmodern}% http://ctan.org/pkg/lmodern
\usepackage{lipsum}% http://ctan.org/pkg/lipsum
\begin{document}
\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.5}%
\begin{tabular}{p{0.4\linewidth}p{0.4\linewidth}}
\verb!12pt! font & \verb!12bp! font \\ \hline
%\fontsize{12pt}{14pt}\selectfont% pt measurement
\lipsum[1] &
\fontsize{12bp}{14pt}\selectfont% bp measurement
\lipsum[1]
\end{tabular}
\end{document}
There are at least two font families that are based on Computer Modern (thus match its metrics) and are available in the OTF format that can be used with Word:
- Latin Modern
- Computer Modern Unicode (also supports Greek and Cyrillic scripts)
Click on the font name you've chosen, then proceed to the download page and get the OTF files. Install them in Windows and Word will see the fonts. As you're looking for just a 80% accuracy, choosing the upright 10/12pt Roman font for the text will be enough.
I can't see, though, how typing text in Word is faster than in any text editor (maybe save spell checking).
Best Answer
Font selection in TeX is a little different from that of MS Word. In LyX, the following choices are available:
Changing the default font size of the document: Under
Document>Settings...>Fonts, you can choose the Base Size as beingDefault,10pt,11ptor12pt(Default is10ptin most cases). This is similar to the traditional\documentclass[<fontsize>]{<doc-class>}selection in LaTeX.For changing font size "on the fly" within the text: Select the text, click the Text Style button
(or
Edit>Text Style>Customized...) and choose one of the Size options (Small,Normal,Large, etc.). Click OK or Apply to activate the font selection.Under the Base Size of
10pt/11pt/12pt(respectively), the following font sizes (or Text Styles) hold:Tiny(LaTeX's\tiny):5pt/6pt/6ptSmallest(LaTeX's\scriptsize):7pt/8pt/8ptSmaller(LaTeX's\footnotesize):8pt/9pt/10ptSmall(LaTeX's\small):9pt/10pt/10.95ptNormal(LaTeX's\normalsize):10pt/10.95pt/12ptLarge(LaTeX's\large):12pt/12pt/14.4ptLarger(LaTeX's\Large):14.4pt/14.4pt/17.28ptLargest(LaTeX's\LARGE):17.28pt,17.28pt/20.74ptHuge(LaTeX's\huge):20.74pt/20.74pt/24.88ptHuger(LaTeX's\Huge):24.88pt/24.88pt/24.88ptIncrease: Step one font size upDecrease: Step one font size downReset: Same asNormalFor specifying and using other font sizes, you will have to include packages that support this or add LaTeX code within your document where you want these changes to take effect. For example, the best way to accomplish this is to use Latin Modern via the
lmodernpackage. Insert this in your LaTeX Preamble usingand then insert the LaTeX code (via Ctrl+L or
)
\fontsize{40pt}{48pt}\selectfontwhere you want it to take effect.\fontsize{<size>}{<baselineskip>}sets the font size to<size>and the skip from baseline-to-baseline as<baseline>. it is usually accepted to have<baseline>~1.2x<size>.Note that this command is considered a switch, making all subsequent text that size. If you want to localize the change, you need to use grouping via braces{...}. For example, the LyX inputyields
A similar approach can be followed using the
anyfontsizepackage.