How can I change the normal font size of my sections?

Question

I have a document using the style file that appears below.

I would like to increase the size of the font being using for normal section text.

What do I change in the style file for increased font size?

I hate to ask a non-general question like this, but this is my first time using TeX, I'm under a bit of a deadline right now, and I figured that an experienced TeX user could tell me with a quick glance.

The following are the style files and a working example. I am trying to increase the font size of the text within the Introduction section of example.tex.

acm.sty:

% Formatting commands to conform to ACM Conference Proceedings
% Adapted from 'official' ACM style file by Matt Welsh, 16 July 2001
% This version adapted for 10point fonts, Matt Welsh, 20 June 2002

\makeatletter

% For ACM formatting specifications
\newfont{\ixpt}{ptmr at 9pt}
\newfont{\ninept}{ptmr at 9pt}
\newfont{\ttlfnt}{phvb at 18pt}
\newfont{\aufnt}{phvr at 12pt}
\newfont{\affaddr}{phvr at 10pt}
\newfont{\eaddrfnt}{pcrb at 10pt}
\newfont{\secfnt}{ptmb at 12pt}
\newfont{\subsecfnt}{ptmri at 11pt}

\def\small{\@setsize\small{9pt}\ixpt\@ixpt
\abovedisplayskip 7.6pt plus 3pt minus 4pt%
\belowdisplayskip \abovedisplayskip
\abovedisplayshortskip \z@ plus2pt%
\belowdisplayshortskip 3.6pt plus2pt minus 2pt 
\def\@listi{\leftmargin\leftmargini %% Added 22 Dec 87
\topsep 4pt plus 2pt minus 2pt\parsep 2pt plus 1pt minus 1pt
\itemsep \parsep}}

%\def\small{\@setsize\small{9pt}\viiipt\@viiipt
%\abovedisplayskip 7.6pt plus 3pt minus 4pt%
%\belowdisplayskip \abovedisplayskip
%\abovedisplayshortskip \z@ plus2pt%
%\belowdisplayshortskip 3.6pt plus2pt minus 2pt 
%\def\@listi{\leftmargin\leftmargini %% Added 22 Dec 87
%\topsep 4pt plus 2pt minus 2pt\parsep 2pt plus 1pt minus 1pt
%\itemsep \parsep}}

% For ACM copyright space
\newfont{\crnotice}{ptmr at 8pt}
\def\ftype@copyrightbox{8}
\def\copyrightspace{
\@float{copyrightbox}[b]
\begin{center}
\setlength{\unitlength}{1pc}
\begin{picture}(20,6) %Space for copyright notice
\put(0,-0.95){\crnotice{\@toappear}}
\end{picture}
\end{center}
\end@float}
\def\@toappear{} % Default setting blank - commands below change this.
\long\def\toappear#1{\def\@toappear{\parbox[b]{20pc}{\baselineskip 9pt#1}}}

%% MDW
%\toappear{\the\boilerplate\par
%{\confname{\the\conf}} \the\confinfo\par \the\copyrightetc.}
%


\newif\if@ll % to record which version of LaTeX is in use

\expandafter\ifx\csname LaTeXe\endcsname\relax % LaTeX2.09 is used
\else% LaTeX2e is used, so set ll to true 
\global\@lltrue 
\fi 

\if@ll% allow use of old-style font change commands in LaTeX2e
\@maxdepth\maxdepth
%
%\DeclareOldFontCommand{\rm}{\ninept\rmfamily}{\mathrm}
\DeclareOldFontCommand{\rm}{\rmfamily}{\mathrm}
\DeclareOldFontCommand{\sf}{\normalfont\sffamily}{\mathsf}
\DeclareOldFontCommand{\tt}{\normalfont\ttfamily}{\mathtt}
\DeclareOldFontCommand{\bf}{\normalfont\bfseries}{\mathbf}
\DeclareOldFontCommand{\it}{\normalfont\itshape}{\mathit}
\DeclareOldFontCommand{\sl}{\normalfont\slshape}{\@nomath\sl}
\DeclareOldFontCommand{\sc}{\normalfont\scshape}{\@nomath\sc}
\DeclareRobustCommand*{\cal}{\@fontswitch{\relax}{\mathcal}}
\DeclareRobustCommand*{\mit}{\@fontswitch{\relax}{\mathnormal}}
\fi
%
\if@ll
 \renewcommand{\rmdefault}{cmr}  % was 'ttm'
  \renewcommand{\@ptsize}{}
  \renewcommand{\normalsize}{%
    \@setfontsize\normalsize\@xpt{10.5\p@}
    \abovedisplayskip 6\p@ \@plus2\p@ \@minus\p@
    \belowdisplayskip \abovedisplayskip
    \abovedisplayshortskip 6\p@ \@minus 3\p@
    \belowdisplayshortskip 6\p@ \@minus 3\p@
    \let\@listi\@listI
  }
\else
  \def\@normalsize{%changed next to 9 from 10
    %\@setsize\normalsize{9\p@}\ixpt\@ixpt
    \@setsize\normalsize{10\p@}\xpt\@xpt
   \abovedisplayskip 6\p@ \@plus2\p@ \@minus\p@
    \belowdisplayskip \abovedisplayskip
    \abovedisplayshortskip 6\p@ \@minus 3\p@
    \belowdisplayshortskip 6\p@ \@minus 3\p@
    \let\@listi\@listI
  }%
\fi
\if@ll
  \newcommand\tensize{\@setfontsize\tensize\@xpt{10\p@}}
  \renewcommand\scriptsize{\@setfontsize\scriptsize\@viipt{8\p@}}
  \renewcommand\tiny{\@setfontsize\tiny\@vpt{6\p@}}
  \renewcommand\large{\@setfontsize\large\@xiipt{14\p@}}
  \renewcommand\Large{\@setfontsize\Large\@xivpt{18\p@}}
  \renewcommand\LARGE{\@setfontsize\LARGE\@xviipt{20\p@}}
  \renewcommand\huge{\@setfontsize\huge\@xxpt{25\p@}}
  \renewcommand\Huge{\@setfontsize\Huge\@xxvpt{30\p@}}
\else
  \def\tensize{\@setsize\tensize\@xpt{10\p@}}
  \def\scriptsize{\@setsize\scriptsize{8\p@}\viipt\@viipt}
  \def\tiny{\@setsize\tiny{6\p@}\vpt\@vpt}
  \def\large{\@setsize\large{14\p@}\xiipt\@xiipt}
  \def\Large{\@setsize\Large{18\p@}\xivpt\@xivpt}
  \def\LARGE{\@setsize\LARGE{20\p@}\xviipt\@xviipt}
  \def\huge{\@setsize\huge{25\p@}\xxpt\@xxpt}
  \def\Huge{\@setsize\Huge{30\p@}\xxvpt\@xxvpt}
\fi
\normalsize

% Section headings %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

%need a 12 pt font size for section and abstract headings
\def\secsize{\@setsize\secsize{12pt}\xiipt\@xiipt}

%need a 11 pt font size for subsection headings
\def\subsize{\@setsize\subsize{11pt}\xipt\@xipt}

\def\section{\@startsection {section}{1}{\z@}{-10\p@ \@plus -4\p@ \@minus -2\p@}%
{4\p@}{\secsize\bf}}

\def\subsection{\@startsection {subsection}{2}{\z@}{-8\p@ \@plus -2\p@ \@minus -\p@}%
{4\p@}{\subsize\bf}}

\def\subsubsection{\@startsection{subsubsection}{3}{\z@}{-8\p@ \@plus -2\p@ \@minus -\p@}%
 {4\p@}{\subsecfnt}}


% Zap space before \paragraph
\def\paragraph{\@startsection {paragraph}{4}{\z@}{8pt plus 1pt minus 1pt}
{-1em}{\normalfont\normalsize\bfseries}}

\makeatother

% Remove some of the space around figure captions
\setlength\abovecaptionskip{-0.1in}
%\setlength\belowcaptionskip{-0.1in}

twocolumn.sty:

% twocolumn.sty  27 Jan 85
\twocolumn
\sloppy
\flushbottom
\parindent 1em
\leftmargini 2em
\leftmarginv .5em
\leftmarginvi .5em
\oddsidemargin 30pt 
\evensidemargin 30pt
\marginparwidth 48pt 
\marginparsep 10pt 
\textwidth 410pt

example.tex:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{program}
\usepackage{acm} % ACM proceedings formatting
\usepackage{times}       % Use Adobe Times font set
\usepackage{epsfig,twocolumn}
\usepackage{url}
\usepackage[english]{babel} % mdw: Required to get good hyphenation on RH6.0
% (fixed in RH6.1)
\usepackage{graphicx} 
\usepackage{color}

% DO NOT EDIT THE BELOW BLOCK OF CODE
\def\dsp{\def\baselinestretch{1.10}}
\dsp
\newcommand{\XXXnote}[1]{{\bf\color{red} XXX: #1}}
\setlength{\textheight}{9.25in}
\setlength{\columnsep}{0.33in}
\setlength{\textwidth}{7.4in}
\setlength{\footskip}{0.0in}
\setlength{\topmargin}{-0.25in}
\setlength{\headheight}{0.0in}
\setlength{\headsep}{0.0in}
\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-.45in}
\setlength{\parindent}{1pc}
\pagestyle{empty}
\begin{document}
\date{}

%%%%%%%%%%%% TITLE AND AUTHORS %%%%%%%%%%%%

% Title here
\title{\ttlfnt A Great Title for a Paper}

% Author names, affiliations, and e-mail below
\author{
  {\aufnt Jhonny Walker} \\ 
  {\affaddr Affiliation} \\ 
  {\affaddr john@something.edu}
}

\maketitle
%\copyrightspace
\thispagestyle{empty}

%%%%%%%%%%%%%  ABSTRACT %%%%%%%%%%%%%%

\subsection*{Abstract}
\begin{small}
This is the abstract of the paper. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque sed ullamcorper sapien. Pellentesque ut lacus sit amet magna ornare ultricies ac sed leo. Vestibulum gravida metus et massa ultricies placerat nec eu lacus. Fusce malesuada lorem sed nunc pulvinar malesuada. Vestibulum nec leo eu arcu convallis consectetur ut id metus. Praesent sagittis placerat nisi, ac semper lorem adipiscing vel. Donec ligula lectus, semper nec fringilla sit amet, sodales facilisis ante. Aliquam varius congue vestibulum. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Nullam mi est, dignissim ac fermentum vitae, hendrerit sed metus. Nullam nec feugiat mauris.
\end{small}

%%%%%%%%%%%%%  BODY OF PAPER %%%%%%%%%%%%%%

%%%%%%%%%%%%%  INTRODCTION %%%%%%%%%%%%%%

\section{Introduction}

This is the text that I want to make largerr! This is the introduction of the paper. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque sed ullamcorper sapien. Pellentesque ut lacus sit amet magna ornare ultricies ac sed leo. Vestibulum gravida metus et massa ultricies placerat nec eu lacus. Fusce malesuada lorem sed nunc pulvinar malesuada. Vestibulum nec leo eu arcu convallis consectetur ut id metus. Praesent sagittis placerat nisi, ac semper lorem adipiscing vel. Donec ligula lectus, semper nec fringilla sit amet, sodales facilisis ante. Aliquam varius congue vestibulum. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Nullam mi est, dignissim ac fermentum vitae, hendrerit sed metus. Nullam nec feugiat mauris.

\end{document}

Welcome to TeX.sx! Wow. How about starting with the titlesec? I think this post is useful for you: Change size of section, subsection, subsubsection, paragraph and subparagraph title Do tell if it answers your concern — hpesoj626, Mar 20 '13 at 15:47
I suggest you post a minimal working example (MWE) containing your code snippet so that solvers can just copy and paste it and test it. — hpesoj626, Mar 20 '13 at 15:58
Excellent idea, I have added the files needed to reproduce the issue I am facing. — OregonTrail, Mar 20 '13 at 16:18
@OregonTrail - It looks live you've obtained .sty files that are meant to be used with Plain TeX instead of with LaTeX. Is there any way you might be able to obtain LaTeX-based .sty files? — Mico, Mar 20 '13 at 16:28
Unfortunately, these styles were provided to me by a professor, and are the preferred style for papers written in the course. I know that the ACM maintains and publishes these styles here: http://www.acm.org/publications/latex_style/v2-acmsmall.zip. However, I'm not sure if I could use that style set at this point in writing the paper, as I may be using a non LaTeX processor. — OregonTrail, Mar 20 '13 at 16:42
Do you want to change the font size for regular (normal) text only in one section or in all your document? — Gonzalo Medina, Mar 20 '13 at 16:44
use \documentclass[12pt]{article} will make the text larger — David Carlisle, Apr 17 '14 at 12:04

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 10 '14 at 20:14

A crude approach is to add a command such as \large, \Large etc. immediately after \section{Introduction}. This leaves document elements that have their size set locally (such as section headings and captions) unaffected. Note that choosing a font size in the usual way (i.e. \documentclass[12pt]{article}) won't work here because the code in acm.sty overrides the setting.

big font

Schweinebacke · Answer 2 · 2017-03-04T08:44:03.820

Package scrextend provides several features of KOMA-Script classes to other classes. One of these features is to change the font sizes after \documentclass. With

\usepackage[fontsize=12pt]{scrextend}

somewhere after loading acm not only changes \normalsize but also the other font size commands will be changed according to the basic font size 12pt:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{program}
\usepackage{acm} % ACM proceedings formatting
\usepackage[fontsize=12pt]{scrextend}% adds several KOMA-Script features like
                                % changing the document font size after
                                % \documentclass
\usepackage{times}       % Use Adobe Times font set
\usepackage{epsfig,twocolumn}
\usepackage{url}
\usepackage[english]{babel} % mdw: Required to get good hyphenation on RH6.0
% (fixed in RH6.1)
\usepackage{graphicx} 
\usepackage{color}

% DO NOT EDIT THE BELOW BLOCK OF CODE
\def\dsp{\def\baselinestretch{1.10}}
\dsp
\newcommand{\XXXnote}[1]{{\bf\color{red} XXX: #1}}
\setlength{\textheight}{9.25in}
\setlength{\columnsep}{0.33in}
\setlength{\textwidth}{7.4in}
\setlength{\footskip}{0.0in}
\setlength{\topmargin}{-0.25in}
\setlength{\headheight}{0.0in}
\setlength{\headsep}{0.0in}
\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-.45in}
\setlength{\parindent}{1pc}
\pagestyle{empty}
\begin{document}
\date{}

%%%%%%%%%%%% TITLE AND AUTHORS %%%%%%%%%%%%

% Title here
\title{\ttlfnt A Great Title for a Paper}

% Author names, affiliations, and e-mail below
\author{
  {\aufnt Jhonny Walker} \\ 
  {\affaddr Affiliation} \\ 
  {\affaddr john@something.edu}
}

\maketitle
%\copyrightspace
\thispagestyle{empty}

%%%%%%%%%%%%%  ABSTRACT %%%%%%%%%%%%%%

\subsection*{Abstract}
\begin{small}
This is the abstract of the paper. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque sed ullamcorper sapien. Pellentesque ut lacus sit amet magna ornare ultricies ac sed leo. Vestibulum gravida metus et massa ultricies placerat nec eu lacus. Fusce malesuada lorem sed nunc pulvinar malesuada. Vestibulum nec leo eu arcu convallis consectetur ut id metus. Praesent sagittis placerat nisi, ac semper lorem adipiscing vel. Donec ligula lectus, semper nec fringilla sit amet, sodales facilisis ante. Aliquam varius congue vestibulum. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Nullam mi est, dignissim ac fermentum vitae, hendrerit sed metus. Nullam nec feugiat mauris.
\end{small}

%%%%%%%%%%%%%  BODY OF PAPER %%%%%%%%%%%%%%

%%%%%%%%%%%%%  INTRODCTION %%%%%%%%%%%%%%

\section{Introduction}

This is the text that I want to make largerr! This is the introduction of the paper. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque sed ullamcorper sapien. Pellentesque ut lacus sit amet magna ornare ultricies ac sed leo. Vestibulum gravida metus et massa ultricies placerat nec eu lacus. Fusce malesuada lorem sed nunc pulvinar malesuada. Vestibulum nec leo eu arcu convallis consectetur ut id metus. Praesent sagittis placerat nisi, ac semper lorem adipiscing vel. Donec ligula lectus, semper nec fringilla sit amet, sodales facilisis ante. Aliquam varius congue vestibulum. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Nullam mi est, dignissim ac fermentum vitae, hendrerit sed metus. Nullam nec feugiat mauris.

\end{document}

results in:

instead of:

But if you want to change only the basic font size \normalsize but not the additional sizes like \large or \small, you can simply patch \normalsize after loading acm. But note that \begin{small}…\end{small} should also be changed to \begin{small}…\par\end{small}, because otherwise the last paragraph of the abstract will be set with the baseline skip of \normalsize instead of \small:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{program}
\usepackage{acm} % ACM proceedings formatting
\usepackage{xpatch}
\makeatletter
\xpatchcmd{\normalsize}{\@xpt{10.5\p@}}{{\@xiipt}{14\p@}}{}{}
\makeatother
\usepackage{times}       % Use Adobe Times font set
\usepackage{epsfig,twocolumn}
\usepackage{url}
\usepackage[english]{babel} % mdw: Required to get good hyphenation on RH6.0
% (fixed in RH6.1)
\usepackage{graphicx} 
\usepackage{color}

% DO NOT EDIT THE BELOW BLOCK OF CODE
\def\dsp{\def\baselinestretch{1.10}}
\dsp
\newcommand{\XXXnote}[1]{{\bf\color{red} XXX: #1}}
\setlength{\textheight}{9.25in}
\setlength{\columnsep}{0.33in}
\setlength{\textwidth}{7.4in}
\setlength{\footskip}{0.0in}
\setlength{\topmargin}{-0.25in}
\setlength{\headheight}{0.0in}
\setlength{\headsep}{0.0in}
\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-.45in}
\setlength{\parindent}{1pc}
\pagestyle{empty}
\begin{document}
\date{}

%%%%%%%%%%%% TITLE AND AUTHORS %%%%%%%%%%%%

% Title here
\title{\ttlfnt A Great Title for a Paper}

% Author names, affiliations, and e-mail below
\author{
  {\aufnt Jhonny Walker} \\ 
  {\affaddr Affiliation} \\ 
  {\affaddr john@something.edu}
}

\maketitle
%\copyrightspace
\thispagestyle{empty}

%%%%%%%%%%%%%  ABSTRACT %%%%%%%%%%%%%%

\subsection*{Abstract}
\begin{small}
This is the abstract of the paper. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque sed ullamcorper sapien. Pellentesque ut lacus sit amet magna ornare ultricies ac sed leo. Vestibulum gravida metus et massa ultricies placerat nec eu lacus. Fusce malesuada lorem sed nunc pulvinar malesuada. Vestibulum nec leo eu arcu convallis consectetur ut id metus. Praesent sagittis placerat nisi, ac semper lorem adipiscing vel. Donec ligula lectus, semper nec fringilla sit amet, sodales facilisis ante. Aliquam varius congue vestibulum. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Nullam mi est, dignissim ac fermentum vitae, hendrerit sed metus. Nullam nec feugiat mauris.\par
\end{small}

%%%%%%%%%%%%%  BODY OF PAPER %%%%%%%%%%%%%%

%%%%%%%%%%%%%  INTRODCTION %%%%%%%%%%%%%%

\section{Introduction}

This is the text that I want to make largerr! This is the introduction of the paper. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quisque sed ullamcorper sapien. Pellentesque ut lacus sit amet magna ornare ultricies ac sed leo. Vestibulum gravida metus et massa ultricies placerat nec eu lacus. Fusce malesuada lorem sed nunc pulvinar malesuada. Vestibulum nec leo eu arcu convallis consectetur ut id metus. Praesent sagittis placerat nisi, ac semper lorem adipiscing vel. Donec ligula lectus, semper nec fringilla sit amet, sodales facilisis ante. Aliquam varius congue vestibulum. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Nullam mi est, dignissim ac fermentum vitae, hendrerit sed metus. Nullam nec feugiat mauris.

\end{document}

Note also that your code is a ugly mixture of LaTeX, plainTeX, obsolete packages and hacks, I would never use.

How can I change the normal font size of my sections?

2 Answers2