Next: Special font declaration commands Up: Text fonts Previous: Internals

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Parameters for author commands

The parameter values set by author commands such as `\textrm` and `\rmfamily`, etc. are not hard-wired into LATEX; instead these commands use the values of a number of parameters set by the document class and packages. For example, `\rmdefault` is the name of the default family selected by `\textrm` and `\rmfamily`. Thus to set a document in Adobe Times, Helvetica and Courier, the document designer specifies:

       \renewcommand{\rmdefault}{ptm}
       \renewcommand{\sfdefault}{phv}
       \renewcommand{\ttdefault}{pcr}

`\encodingdefault`
`\familydefault`
`\seriesdefault`
`\shapedefault`

The encoding, family, series and shape of the main body font. By default these are `OT1`, `\rmdefault`, `m` and `n`. Note that since the default family is `\rmdefault`, this means that changing `\rmdefault` will change the main body font of the document.

`\rmdefault`
`\sfdefault`
`\ttdefault`

The families selected by `\textrm`, `\rmfamily`, `\textsf`, `\sffamily`, `\texttt` and `\ttfamily`. By default these are `cmr`, `cmss` and `cmtt`.

`\bfdefault`
`\mddefault`

The series selected by `\textbf`, `\bfseries`, `\textmd` and `\mdseries`. By default these are `bx` and `m`. These values are suitable for the default families used. If other fonts are used as standard document fonts (for example, certain PostScript fonts) it might be necessary to adjust the value of `\bfdefault` to `b` since only a few such families have a `bold extended' series. An alternative (taken for the fonts provided by `psnfss`) is to define silent substitutions from `bx` series to `b` series with special `\DeclareFontShape` declarations and the `ssub` size function, see Section 4.4.

`\itdefault`
`\sldefault`
`\scdefault`
`\updefault`

The shapes selected by `\textit`, `\itshape`, `\textsl`, `\slshape`, `\textsc`, `\scshape`, `\textup` and `\upshape`. By default these are `it`, `sl`, `sc` and `n`. Note that there are no parameters for the size commands. These should be defined directly in class files, for example:

       \renewcommand{\normalsize}{\fontsize{10}{12}\selectfont}

More elaborate examples (setting additional parameters when the text size is changed) can be found in `classes.dtx` the source documentation for the classes `article`, `report`, and `book`.

Next: Special font declaration commands Up: Text fonts Previous: Internals