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I am trying to write a research proposal in LaTeX. To this end, I am using the package proposal.

The guidelines are strict, my proposal MUST be written in Arial 11 pt. My concern is the following: I have the feeling that the font size is somehow slightly smaller than 11 pt. This feeling was confirmed by comparing the same text printed out from a Word file with Arial fonts, 11 pt.

I found a question pretty similar here: How to determine the true size of a font? but I must say it did not suffice to fix my problem.

I have tried to look into the .log file, and found that line:

LaTeX Font Info:    Font shape `T1/ua1/m/n' will be
(Font)              scaled to size 10.40245pt on input line 22.

although the first lines of the log file show that the 11 pt option was properly transmitted to the base class (through dfgproposal -> proposal -> article):

Document Class: dfgproposal 2013/02/13 v1.4 DFG Proposal
(./proposal.cls
Document Class: proposal 2013/02/13 v1.4 Project Proposal
(/usr/local/texlive/2013/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/article.cls
Document Class: article 2007/10/19 v1.4h Standard LaTeX document class
(/usr/local/texlive/2013/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/size11.clo
File: size11.clo 2007/10/19 v1.4h Standard LaTeX file (size option)
)

EDIT: Alright, I found the answer myself, as I was trying to write a minimal working example (at the request of Harish Kumar). To be able to produce a document with the Arial font, I use the package uarial. What I did not know is that uarial takes an argument called "scaled": 

\usepackage[scaled=xxx]{uarial}

By default, scaled is not 1.0, because Arial produces letters that are bigger than other fonts. So, simply writing

\usepackage[scaled=1.0]{uarial}

solved my problems.

Community
  • 1
Alexandre
  • 123

1 Answers1

12

I don't have the package installed but google suggests you are using

http://www.tex.ac.uk/ctan/fonts/urw/arial/latex/t1ua1.fd

which is

\ProvidesFile{t1ua1.fd}
   [2006/03/21 Fontinst v1.928 font definitions for T1/ua1.]

\expandafter\ifx\csname ua1@Scale\endcsname\relax
 \let\uaI@@Scale\@empty
\else
 \edef\uaI@@Scale{s*[\csname ua1@Scale\endcsname]}%
\fi

\DeclareFontFamily{T1}{ua1}{}

\DeclareFontShape{T1}{ua1}{m}{n}{ <-> \uaI@@Scale ua1r8t}{}

\DeclareFontShape{T1}{ua1}{m}{it}{ <-> \uaI@@Scale ua1ri8t}{}

\DeclareFontShape{T1}{ua1}{b}{n}{ <-> \uaI@@Scale ua1b8t}{}

\DeclareFontShape{T1}{ua1}{b}{it}{ <-> \uaI@@Scale ua1bi8t
}{}

\DeclareFontShape{T1}{ua1}{m}{sl}{<->ssub * ua1/m/it}{}
\DeclareFontShape{T1}{ua1}{bx}{n}{<->ssub * ua1/b/n}{}
\DeclareFontShape{T1}{ua1}{bx}{it}{<->ssub * ua1/b/it}{}
\DeclareFontShape{T1}{ua1}{b}{sl}{<->ssub * ua1/b/it}{}
\DeclareFontShape{T1}{ua1}{bx}{sl}{<->ssub * ua1/b/sl}{}

which suggests that (if the package has no other options to control it) that you could turn off scaling by adding the line

  \expandafter\let\csname ua1@Scale\endcsname\relax

to your preamble, although actually you could do

 \expandafter\def\csname ua1@Scale\endcsname{1.00375}

since when the guidelines say 11pt they will mean postscript points bp in TeX which are 72.27/72 bigger than TeX points.

As noted in comments you don't have to set \ua1@Scale explictly, there is a package option so

\usepackage[scaled=1.00375]{uarial}

Will give 11bp font size instead of the default scale of 0.95*11pt.

David Carlisle
  • 757,742
  • or just \usepackage[scaled=1.00375]{uarial} instead of the 0.95 default value! – Josef Mar 24 '14 at 12:06
  • Wow, I had not seen you answer... thank you, you got it ! Thanks also for the 72.27 / 72 = 1.00375 tip... – Alexandre Mar 24 '14 at 12:12
  • @Josef thanks, I suspect you have the package or looked at its documentation or something:-) I'll add that to the answer, obviously what you suggest is better syntax for setting that if there is a scaled option. – David Carlisle Mar 24 '14 at 16:18
  • @DavidCarlisle I just looked into uarial.sty! ;-) But i was aware of Walter's other font packages especially psnfss. So i had a strong suspicion. Strangely, the scaled option is not documented. Its value was taken from helvet.sty, which is used there for better font size matching with Times, Palatino and Courier fonts. So uarial.sty should work as drop in replacement for helvet.sty. – Josef Mar 24 '14 at 17:46
  • @DavidCarlisle Ah, now i understand your comment. uarial.sty is not even in my TeXLive installation. I just followed the link you provided! ;-) – Josef Mar 24 '14 at 18:03