Fonts & Character Sets ⇒ How can I use a font in latex

[alex2747]

Hi,

I am frustratingly trying to use different fonts in a Latex document, but I had no success so far. I would appreciate to get some help in this forum.

What I simply want to do: choose a different font for a document on my Linux machine. I googled on how to do this and found some information; but either the examples just did not work:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Fonts
http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/documen ... .html#typo

(Error: file iowa.sty not found),

or the help seems just to be useless, because it is too detailed explaining every bit of whatever:

http://tex.loria.fr/general/new/fntguide.html
http://mirror.ctan.org/info/Type1fonts/ ... nguide.pdf
http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/documen ... .html#typo

I just want to use a font! My questions:

1. Is it possible to just select a font with one command in latex? Or do I require an armada of different commands?

2. Do I need to install the fonts I would like to use? So where to find them, and how do they look like?

I found something here:
http://www.tug.dk/FontCatalogue/about.html
but there seem to be no word on how to install them. This page also refers to fonts that are NOT part of the latex installation... so there are some fonts with the latex installation? How to select them?

Please, any help on this issue is appreciated.

Thanks
Alex

[localghost]

[…] I just want to use a font! […]

Which font exactly is that going to be? You've already found the LaTeX Font Catalogue. But it seems that until now you haven't chosen a font from there. The catalog describes clearly which package to include in order to use a font. Where necessary, you have to install the concerned font package by using the package manager of your LaTeX distribution. If you want to use OpenType (OTF) or TrueType (TTF) fonts installed on your system, you better go with XeTeX.


Best regards and welcome to the board
Thorsten

[frabjous]

It would help greatly if you told us what font you are trying to use, and post some sample code where you try to use that font, so we can see why it isn't working.

(Error: file iowa.sty not found),

I wonder if you meant iwona rather than iowa?

http://tex.loria.fr/general/new/fntguide.html
http://mirror.ctan.org/info/Type1fonts/ ... nguide.pdf

I wouldn't try to install a new font in regular LaTeX as a beginner. Either pick a font that has a pre-packaged style file you can use (e.g., those listed in the LaTeX font catalogue), or use XeLaTeX.

You didn't say what LaTeX system you have installed--presumably TeXlive--but do you have a full installation of TL 2009, or just a partial installation? What version of linux are you using, and did you install LaTeX though its package manager, or did someone else install it for you, etc.?

If you have a decently complete TeXlive installation, most of the fonts in the LaTeX font catalogue are probably already installed. You just need to use the commands listed in the Font Catalogue to select them for a given document.

[alex2747]

Hi,

thanks for your reply, but it does not answer my questions. But even if I have found the LatexFont catalogue, I do not see any example on how to select one of these fonts!
After some searching I came upon this link:
http://www.tug.org/pracjourn/2006-1/schmidt/
which contains a pdf explaining how to change the font in a document. Exactly what I actually am searching! It also contains an example:
\renewcommand{\rmdefault}{ptm}
but no explanation what it does. Does it change the font? Whats the fonts name? rmdefault or ptm? I cannot find either in the FontCatalogue.

So still I do not know how to select a specific font and I do not know what fonts are available. Are all the fonts of the FontCatalogue available? If so, how to choose/select them in latex?

Maybe anyone can give an example latex command that just works? That would be very helpful. Maybe with one of the fonts of the FontCatalogue.

Thanks
Alex

[localghost]

[…] So still I do not know how to select a specific font and I do not know what fonts are available. Are all the fonts of the FontCatalogue available? If so, how to choose/select them in latex? […]

Actually the Font Catalogue is very clear in its descriptions. Take the kpfonts as example [1]. There is a section »Usage« where you can find exactly the lines needed to activate the font. In principal it is the same for any other font listed in the catalog. And of course all listed fonts are available for LaTeX. Descriptions and manuals are available on CTAN.

[1] The LaTeX Font Catalogue - KP Serif

[alex2747]

Aah, ok sorry, you just have to click on the font for further explanation...


I just tried that (i.e. I added the following two lines to the Latex document before \begin{document})

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{kpfonts}

and got the following error:

... File 'kpfonts.sty' not found

So do I still need to install something? Or is my setup configured in a wrong way? Maybe I need to 'yum install' these fonts first?


Cheers
Alex

[localghost]

Install the package with the package manager of your LaTeX Distribution.

[alex2747]

Hi,

can I then ask how to install what package with the latex package manager? I never heard of this manager before.

So my questions:

- What package do I need to install to use some fonts with latex
- How to install this package.

I have googled quickly but did not found something useful. Just as a reminder: I want to use some/a couple of different fonts with my latex on Linux, and do not want to install a different operating system.

Thanks
Alex

[localghost]

In another topic you mentioned that your Linux distribution is Fedora 12 [1]. Somehow it should be possible to find out which LaTeX distribution and version is shipped with your system. For example my distribution² supports TeX Live 2009 in an external repository. (On the installation medium was TeX Live 2008.)

If all your efforts come to nothing, you can always create a texmf tree compliant to the TeX Directory Structure (TDS) standard in your home directory.

[1] View topic: kile keeps crashing. PLEASE help

[alex2747]

Hi,

maybe the version of latex helps?

latex --version
pdfTeX using libpoppler 3.141592-1.40.3-2.2 (Web2C 7.5.6)
kpathsea version 3.5.6
Copyright 2007 Peter Breitenlohner (eTeX)/Han The Thanh (pdfTeX).
Kpathsea is copyright 2007 Karl Berry and Olaf Weber.
There is NO warranty. Redistribution of this software is
covered by the terms of both the pdfTeX using libpoppler copyright and
the Lesser GNU General Public License.
For more information about these matters, see the file
named COPYING and the pdfTeX using libpoppler source.
Primary author of pdfTeX using libpoppler: Peter Breitenlohner (eTeX)/Han The Thanh (pdfTeX).
Kpathsea written by Karl Berry, Olaf Weber, and others.

Compiled with libpng 1.2.39; using libpng 1.2.42
Compiled with zlib 1.2.3; using zlib 1.2.3
Compiled with libpoppler


Otherwise I have absolutely no idea what version/package/... my used latex is.
Additionally I find the following path on my disk:
/usr/share/texmf
which contains even a directory fonts. But is that any help for me?


Thanks
Alex