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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 up previous contents
Next: Special font declaration commands Up: Text fonts Previous: Internals
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1999-07-12