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4.3 Low-level font commands

These commands are primarily intended for writers of macros and packages. The commands listed here are only a subset of the available ones.

\fontencoding{enc}
Select font encoding. Valid encodings include OT1 and T1.
\fontfamily{family}
Select font family. Valid families include:

and numerous others.

\fontseries{series}
Select font series. Valid series include:

and various other combinations.

\fontshape{shape}
Select font shape. Valid shapes are:

The two last shapes are not available for most font families.

\fontsize{size}{skip}
Set font size. The first parameter is the font size to switch to and the second is the line spacing to use; this is stored in a parameter named \baselineskip. The unit of both parameters defaults to pt. The default \baselineskip for the Computer Modern typeface is 1.2 times the \fontsize.

The line spacing is also multiplied by the value of the \baselinestretch parameter when the type size changes; the default is 1. However, the best way to “double space” a document, if you should be unlucky enough to have to produce such, is to use the setspace package; see http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=linespace.

\selectfont
The changes made by calling the four font commands described above do not come into effect until \selectfont is called.
\usefont{enc}{family}{series}{shape}
The same as invoking \fontencoding, \fontfamily, \fontseries and \fontshape with the given parameters, followed by \selectfont.