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Apologies if this is not worded correctly. I am using the memoir class. I wish to use another type of font, globally, for the text in my document. I figured this should be a trivial task. In lots of the templates I see, in the preamble I see things like this:

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc} % package for font encodings
\usepackage[osf]{Alegreya,AlegreyaSans} % here's the font(s) they want to use

As I understand, the useage of this fontenc package is recommended. My question is - what fonts are actually available using this fontenc package? For example, when I try to use 'Typewriter', i.e.

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[osf]{Typewriter} % referencing font name given in Table 2.3 of memoir class documentation http://texdoc.net/texmf-dist/doc/latex/memoir/memman.pdf

which is a font mentioned in the memoir class documentation, I just get the error 'no typewriter.sty'. But when I use this one above (which I found in a template), it works. Does anyone know if there is documentation somewhere, where I can see a list of what fonts are available to me, to use in this way? (and perhaps with examples of what those fonts look like?)

I should note that I do see in the memoir class documentation, about how to change the font. But it seems to be for changing it locally - i.e., \ttfamily will set the text after that, as Typewriter text. However, I want to change the font setting for the entire document. Alternatively - is there another approach (other than fontenc) which is trivial, for setting global font properties, which is recommended?

ffConundrums
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  • Please provide a complete example rather than a mere fragment. – cfr Jul 30 '17 at 03:47
  • My bad. I had tried, \usepackage[T1]{fontenc} \usepackage[osf]{Typewriter} (and typewriter lower case as well). I had tried doing it like this, after looking at the font list on the memoir class documentation here (see table 2.3 on p.16) http://texdoc.net/texmf-dist/doc/latex/memoir/memman.pdf , and mistaking 'Typewriter' as the proper name of a font itself. I must say the font catalogue link given in the answer, is great as it gives the proper names of these fonts http://www.tug.dk/FontCatalogue/ – ffConundrums Jul 30 '17 at 07:24
  • Yes, it is a neat resource, isn't it? Really very nice. – cfr Jul 30 '17 at 13:25

1 Answers1

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fontenc does not provide any fonts. It supports additional font (output) encodings. T1 is recommended for most languages using Latin scripts, if using TeX or pdfTeX to compile (i.e. LaTeX or pdfLaTeX), as opposed to XeTeX or LuaTeX (i.e. XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX). This is because it supports accented characters far better than the default.

In general, you have 3 font families available for use in text mode in a document as standard:

  • \rmfamily: serif
  • \sffamily: sans-serif
  • \ttfamily: typewriter (usually also monowidth)

While you could set things up so only one family is available, this would be a very unusual (and fairly pointless) approach. Moreover, you very likely don't want typewriter for the whole document.

These three font families are not specific fonts: there is no 'Typewriter' font. They are, rather, macros which get set to some suitable set of fonts. By default, this means Computer Modern Roman, Computer Modern Sans and Computer Modern Typewriter.

To use a different font configuration, you usually load a package which configures things so that \rmfamily, \sffamily and \ttfamily call a different, complementary set of three font families. Sometimes, you might just need one package to change all text and maths fonts. Other times, a package might just change the three text families. Other times, a package might change just one.

http://www.tug.dk/FontCatalogue/ is a catalogue of most fonts standardly available in TeX distributions, together with samples and instructions for using them.

Two of my answers to an earlier question may also be of interest:

cfr
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    I can not thank you enough - both for the thorough explanation of how this works, as well as the link to the fontcatalogue link. Absolutely what I was looking for and so helpful! – ffConundrums Jul 30 '17 at 05:45