Suppose I wanted to use a different font for a title then the body text in LaTeX (pdflatex). (For example, if I wanted to use a slightly fancier font for titles, or a sans-serif one.) How would I do that, change the font of a class of thing throughout the document, in a proper way. (Likewise, if I wanted to change the document title, captions, etc. Is there a general way of doing this?)
[Tex/LaTex] the proper way to change the section title font in LaTeX
fontssectioningtitlesec
Related Solutions
For the standard classes titlesec would be my choice. Here's an example using titlesec and the standard formatting/spacing, except that the font is changed to Helvetica (Arial has been derived from it) and the font color for demonstration. Adjust the \titleformat arguments to achieve what you desire.
\documentclass{report}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{blindtext}
\usepackage{mathptmx}% Times Roman font
\usepackage[scaled=.90]{helvet}% Helvetica, served as a model for arial
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{titlesec}
\titleformat{\chapter}[display]
{\normalfont\sffamily\huge\bfseries\color{blue}}
{\chaptertitlename\ \thechapter}{20pt}{\Huge}
\titleformat{\section}
{\normalfont\sffamily\Large\bfseries\color{cyan}}
{\thesection}{1em}{}
\begin{document}
\Blinddocument
\end{document}
With KOMA-Script classes it's easy as many other issues, just use \setkomafont and \addtokomafont. Here's the example:
\documentclass{scrreprt}
\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage{blindtext}
\usepackage{mathptmx}% Times Roman font
\usepackage[scaled=.90]{helvet}% Helvetica, served as a model for arial
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{titlesec}
\setkomafont{chapter}{\normalfont\huge\sffamily\bfseries\color{blue}}
\addtokomafont{section}{\color{cyan}}
\begin{document}
\Blinddocument
\end{document}
\renewcommand{\familydefault}{\sfdefault} will switch to using sans-serif for everything except mathematics. The sans-serif will be computer modern sans unless you also put \usepackage{helvet} in the preamble in order to make the default sans be Helvetica (or \usepackage{avant} for Avant-Garde, etc.
Best Answer
The titlesec or sectsty packages are your friends for the standard classes. If you want some more control, try the komascript classes or memoir. See the UKTeXFAQ.