Softening the Bold

Question

Consider the code

\documentclass[12pt]{book}
\oddsidemargin 17pt \evensidemargin 18pt \topmargin 35pt \headheight 25pt \textheight 8.5in \textwidth 5.75in \headsep 40pt \marginparwidth 35pt
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc} 
\input GoudyIn.fd
\newcommand*\initfamily{\usefont{U}{GoudyIn}{xl}{n}}
\usepackage{lettrine}
\usepackage{color}
%\definecolor{olivegreen}{cmyk}{0.64,0,0.95,0.40}
\renewcommand{\LettrineFontHook}{\initfamily{}}
\setcounter{DefaultLines}{3}
\renewcommand{\DefaultLoversize}{.47}
\begin{document} 
\vspace*{35pt}
\Large
\lettrine{\color{blue}{A}}{\color{blue}dvertising is the art} of convincing people to spend money they don't have for something they don't need. ---\textit{Will Rogers}
\vskip 35pt
\lettrine{\color{blue}{A}}{\textbf{\color{blue}advertising is the art}} of convincing people to spend money they don't have for something they don't need. \textit{---Will Rogers}
\end{document}

which produces

QUESTION: In the first quote, I would like to darken the blue letters following the lettrine. However, the manner in which it is done in the second case seems a bit too harsh. How may I adjust the boldness of the blue text to something in between the two given shades of blue? Is there a way to specify this globally, in the event of many quotes?

Thank you.

It’s not the color that needs adjustment; the effect you seek would require a semibold font. — Thérèse, Jan 27 '22 at 14:55
Unrelated to your question but would it not also be profitable to convince people to spend money they do have? — Marijn, Jan 27 '22 at 14:56
I guess that basically you need something along the lines of https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/27843/82917 — campa, Jan 27 '22 at 15:00
@Thérèse Would you elaborate a bit on what is meant by "a semibold font"? Thank you. — DDS, Jan 27 '22 at 15:52
@Marijn Yes; but I recall that Will Rogers was a satirist during the Great Depression in the U.S in which some people lost everything beginning in 1929. I interpret his quip as a heavy-handed condemnation of advertisers in the U.S. — DDS, Jan 27 '22 at 15:57
You can see examples in TeX Live: Libertinus, kpfonts-otf, Coelacanth, etc., all have a semibold weight. — Thérèse, Jan 27 '22 at 16:17

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 27 '22 at 15:13

A comment on a related question mentions that you can use \textpdfrender from the pdfrender package with a specific linewidth. Typographically this is maybe not the cleanest but it may be an option if you can't find a font that has SemiBold defined.

\documentclass[12pt]{book}
\usepackage{pdfrender}
\oddsidemargin 17pt \evensidemargin 18pt \topmargin 35pt \headheight 25pt \textheight 8.5in \textwidth 5.75in \headsep 40pt \marginparwidth 35pt
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc} 
\input GoudyIn.fd
\newcommand*\initfamily{\usefont{U}{GoudyIn}{xl}{n}}
\usepackage{lettrine}
\usepackage{color}
%\definecolor{olivegreen}{cmyk}{0.64,0,0.95,0.40}
\renewcommand{\LettrineFontHook}{\initfamily{}}
\setcounter{DefaultLines}{3}
\renewcommand{\DefaultLoversize}{.47}
\begin{document} 
\vspace*{35pt}
\Large
\lettrine{\color{blue}{A}}{\color{blue}dvertising is the art} of convincing people to spend money they don't have for something they don't need. ---\textit{Will Rogers}
\vskip 35pt
\lettrine{\color{blue}{A}}{\color{blue}\textpdfrender{TextRenderingMode=2,LineWidth=0.1pt}{dvertising is the art}} of convincing people to spend money they don't have for something they don't need. ---\textit{Will Rogers}
\vskip 35pt
\lettrine{\color{blue}{A}}{\textbf{\color{blue}advertising is the art}} of convincing people to spend money they don't have for something they don't need. \textit{---Will Rogers}
\end{document}

Thank you for posting this answer. It seems that there is a predetermined level of "unboldness" that one can achieve with \textpdfrender{TextRenderingMode=2,LineWidth=0.1pt}, for when I use, say, LineWidth=0.0pt, the shading does not revert back to the original, but more closely resembles the bold in the second output of the original code. — DDS, Jan 27 '22 at 16:00

Softening the Bold

1 Answers1