Why does KOMA-Script mix serifs and sans-serifs?

Question

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:

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:

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?

Because Markus Kohm likes so? ;-) Really, it's just a question of personal preference. — egreg, Jan 28 '16 at 11:25
@egreg, maybe I'll start to read between the lines "Who's up for a KOMA-fork that chooses serifed section headings as defaults?" then ;) — Turion, Jan 28 '16 at 11:28
In my opinion there should be a document class option for it, instead of the \setkomafont statement. And yes, I find imposing sans serif for titles is not the best choice (one of the reasons why I don't use Koma-script classes). — egreg, Jan 28 '16 at 11:30
@egreg, out of curiosity, what do you use instead? Memoir? LaTeX standard classes? Your own classes? — Turion, Jan 28 '16 at 11:33
@egreg, you can change the font of all titles by setting \setkomafont{disposition}{\normalcolor\bfseries}. I think this is not that much less comfortable than a document class option. — KarlKlammer, Jan 28 '16 at 12:06
@KarlKlammer or either \addtokomafont{disposition}{\rmfamily} — , Jan 28 '16 at 12:09
@Turion I do have a personal class; otherwise standard classes or memoir. — egreg, Jan 28 '16 at 12:10
@KarlKlammer I know well the \setkomafont way and I find it awkward. — egreg, Jan 28 '16 at 12:10
@esdd I can't read German, but I find it quite offending. Note that I used sans serif titles in some of my documents. What I don't like is that there are options for everything, but not for this important aspect of typesetting choice. And no, using \setkomafont is not the same thing. — egreg, Feb 04 '16 at 23:23

score 18 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 28 '16 at 12:03

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.

I do not like the default setting either. The KOMA-Script's reasoning also makes little sense, because the default setting, bold sans serif font, looks heavier than bold serif font, at least with some fonts (newtx). For coloured documents I use a different colour for the headings and for black and white documents I simply use bold serif fonts. — Pygmalion, Feb 22 '24 at 07:40

esdd · Answer 2 · 2016-02-17T10:24:49.307

Update

Since version 3.12 there is an undocumented value standardclasses for the heading option defined that changes the font of all section heading levels to serif.

Note that with

headings=standardclasses

also chapterprefix=true is set and the sizes of the headings are changed similar to the standard classes. To reverse this two additional changes you have to use chapterprefix=false and headings=big after headings=standardclasses.

\documentclass[
  headings=standardclasses,
  headings=big
]{scrartcl}
\usepackage{blindtext}
\begin{document}
\blinddocument
\end{document}

\documentclass[
  headings=standardclasses,
  headings=big,
  chapterprefix=false
]{scrbook}
\usepackage{blindtext}
\begin{document}
\blinddocument
\end{document}

If you use scrreprt or scrbook option headings=standardclasses is also set by the undocumented option emulatestandardclasses (see below).

Original answer

Since version 3.12 there is also an undocumented class option that results in a similar layout to the standard classes including serif font for the headings:

\documentclass[emulatestandardclasses]{scrbook}
\usepackage{blindtext}% dummy text
\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
\Blinddocument
\end{document}

Note that this option needs package scrlayer-scrpage. So it can not be used together with scrpage2 or fancyhdr.

score 11 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 28 '16 at 12:19

As far as I have learned, the whole point of using serif font is to help the reader find the next line in justified text, i.e., not skipping one or reading the same line again. Serif fonts accomplish this through a strong emphasis on the baseline.

On the other hand, headings are a) not justified b) usually not longer than one or two lines and c) significantly bigger than the running text. That's why the serifs are not needed there.

Why does KOMA-Script mix serifs and sans-serifs?

3 Answers3

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