[Tex/LaTex] Why does KOMA-Script mix serifs and sans-serifs

koma-scripttypography

This might be slightly off-topic, but still I'll give it a try, and other TeX-users might be interested as well.

Consider this minimal example:

\documentclass{scrartcl}
\begin{document}
    \section{The heading}
    Some text
\end{document}

It produces this result:

enter image description here

I find this incredibly displeasing. Especially when there are smaller, and more frequent subsection headings, the change between a serif and a sans-serif typeface strikes me as something I'd encounter in a school essay by a teenager just discovering comic sans. (I might be exaggerating.)

I know it is possible to change the section heading font to serif, and I like it, personally:

enter image description here

Is there a typographical reasoning behind the standard choice in KOMA-Script? Does my preference of serifed section headings count as poor taste or unsound typography? What are the pros and cons? (Or is it really just taste?)

Edit: I'm asking about a typographical reasoning because people claim e.g. that there is an optimal number of characters per line, supported by scientific evidence. Who knows, maybe there are experiments that show that the reader remembers more/less from a text typeset with sans-serifed section headings?

Best Answer

KOMA-Script's reasoning for that is:

There is a rule in typography which states that one should mix as few fonts as possible. Using sans serif for headings already seems to be a breach of this rule. However, one should know that bold, large serif letters are much too heavy for headings. Strictly speaking, one would then have to at least use a normal instead of a bold or semi-bold font. However, in deeper levels of the structuring, a normal font may then appear too lightly weighted. On the other hand, sans serif fonts in headings have a very pleasant appearance and in fact find acceptance almost solely for headings. That is why sans serif is the carefully chosen default in KOMA-Script.

(Markus Kohm, KOMA-Script guide, p. 94)

That being said, I like the all-serif version better, too. Although it is not exactly a gold standard in typography, Microsoft Word's standard settings have moved from mixed fonts (2003: Arial/Times New Roman or 2007-2010: Cambria/Calibri) to all-sans-serif (2013-2016: Calibri Light/Calibri). Maybe this indicates that this rule is not set in stone.

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