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I've been using \documentclass{article}, but would like to set a default font outside the range of that document class.

The recommended solution I found on tex.exchange was to use KOMA-script, but this has changed the default font and somehow made my document longer.

Is it possible to change the document font size (using KOMA-script or otherwise) in such a way that does not require additional tweaks? If not, how can I at least make the font in KOMA-script scrartcl match the default in article?

EDIT In my defence, the linked answers are somewhat lacking:

  1. First solution suggests \usepackage{scrextend} but the example\commands\syntax are not commented or explained, nor is any reference linked. While providing a starting point, this would require one to find appropriate documentation for this package that addresses this particular use (= v. difficult for novice).

  2. Second solution suggests extsizes followed by a quote from the documentation (again without linking to it so that one could read further for clarification) discouraging its use for ambiguous reasons (nb this is at least the second place extsizes was discouraged w/o explanation, even though it was the solution I was personally looking for (as far as I know!)). Related to the lack of linked reference, no examples are provided, which leaves a novice to continue searching w/o knowing what exactly they are looking for.

  3. Third solution suggests changing the document class (scrreport), which does not address the question posted here.

  4. ibid. (change to memoir)

It seems to me, from my limited vantage point, that there are likely many tangential, more advanced, issues related to this problem; a problem very likely to present itself to novice users ill-equipped to understand, sort or evaluate the various solutions as they are stated.

To clarify: I believe the primary audience for this question is relatively novice users; whereas the proposed solutions, IMHO, are not well suited to that audience.

This problem seems like a great stepping stone for users to advance their knowledge, I'd suggest a well-documented Q&A that facilitates that process (& would be happy to take this on, if anyone can point me to the appropriate resources).

Schweinebacke
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Rax Adaam
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    another option would be extarticle which is more like article than scrartcl but has more size options 8 9 10 11 12 14 17 20 – David Carlisle Feb 27 '13 at 22:30
  • Hi! Would this help you? How to specify font size less than 10pt (or more than 12pt) – yo' Feb 27 '13 at 22:31
  • @tohecz, no that is the post I refer to in my question. Thank you anyhow. – Rax Adaam Feb 27 '13 at 23:08
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    @lockstep IMHO those two questions (the one you link and the one I link) should be merged. – yo' Feb 27 '13 at 23:12
  • I read both of those posts prior to asking my question (hence my problem!); unfortunately I did not try the extarticle class b/c the primary answer recommends KOMA over the 'extsizes', so I assumed it was better practice for reasons beyond my knowledge. After decrypting the 2nd answer, I realized that it was not actually a solution to the posted question (defines a new font-size, but does not define the font of the document such that other font-size commands will scale). Having spent >1.5h trying to resolve this, IMHO an clear (ie accessible), concise solution would be very helpful. – Rax Adaam Feb 28 '13 at 17:00
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    Re item 1 of your edit: I added a link to the relevant documentation to my answer. – lockstep Feb 28 '13 at 17:37
  • @lockstep thank you, I'm sure that will prove helpful to others. – Rax Adaam Feb 28 '13 at 19:30
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    @toh Relative as it is, I'm not sure clarity is as useful a concept as 'comprehensive'. This problem will attract novices, and existing answers could easily be adapted to provide the info in a more accessible way. I spent nearly 2h trying to change the font size, even with >1000pg of technical typesetting behind me. Newbs like me can't filter relevant info in searches and 250pg manuals as effectively as experienced members. My suggestions are very concrete and easy-to-implement solutions to facilitate accessibility in light of the most likely audience for the problem w/o ignoring others. – Rax Adaam Feb 28 '13 at 19:36

1 Answers1

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It shouldn't change the default font except for the headers, where KOMA-Script correctly (at least in my opinion) uses Sans Serif fonts for bold headings. This make it easier for the eyes, but that's only my opinion.

However, you can change the fonts of the headers via a powerfull command:

\addtokomafont{disposition}{\rmfamily}

More information on this is here.

If this is still not enough, could you clarify, how exactly KOMA-Script changes the font? Also, you can still happily use:

\usepackage{lmodern}

If Computer modern fonts are what you are after.

Update: Just an update on the font sizes. One can use the something as follows:

\KOMAoptions{fontsize=10pt}

Note, that one can pass more arguments to set other defaults for the documentclass instead of passing it whilst defining the document class.

Hence a minimal example would be as follows (you should get something similar to the default settings with article class):

\documentclass{scrartcl}

\KOMAoptions{%
    %draft,
    DIV=calc, % this will calculate correct margins
    fontsize=10pt,
}

\addtokomafont{disposition}{\rmfamily}

\begin{document}

... TEXT ...
\end{document}
Matt Kline
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aignas
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