How To Change Font Size In Latex

Learn how to change the font size in a LaTeX document.

Changing the font size locally
Changing the font size globally
Packages for changing font size

Changing the font size locally

When working on a LaTeX document, the easiest way to modify the font size is by using these predefined commands:

\Huge \huge \LARGE \Large \large \normalsize \small \footnotesize \scriptsize \tiny

These commands change the font size locally. They tin be used in ii dissimilar ways: Nosotros can declare their scope inside a text within curly braces, such as {\huge these words are larger}. We tin also create an surroundings by writing our text inside \brainstorm{huge} and \cease{huge} commands.

Sometimes, we might want to consider the line spacing when changing the font size. Ending our commands with a paragraph includes the adjusting of the \baselineskip, which specifies the minimum space between two successive lines in a paragraph. Nosotros can add together a paragraph using \par command or adding a new line grapheme at the end of the text. Post-obit example shows the line space adjusting:

\begin{huge} Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nam maximus mauris quis viverra imperdiet.\par \end{huge}

Irresolute the font size globally

These commands are relative to the global font size of the document. When we choose a certificate class nosotros are also setting a font size for the whole document. If it'southward not declared, the default font size for nigh of the standard document classes is 10pt. This size becomes the setting for \normalsize option, and all the other size commands are adjusted appropriately. In standard classes (commodity, book, alphabetic character and report), there are three size options: 10pt, 11pt and 12pt. It can be changed by setting it equally an argument to the document form: \documentclass[11pt]{article}. Following table shows the font size for all commands and for each size options for the standard certificate classes.

size	10pt	11pt	12pt
\tiny	5	6	half-dozen
\scriptsize	7	viii	8
\footnotesize	8	9	ten
\pocket-size	9	10	ten.95
\normalsize	10	10.95	12
\large	12	12	xiv.4
\Large	14.iv	xiv.four	17.28
\Big	17.28	17.28	twenty.74
\huge	xx.74	20.74	24.88
\Huge	24.88	24.88	24.88

Other document classes might have different font size options. For instance, memoir class has 12 font sizes (9pt, 10pt, 11pt, 12pt, 14pt, 17pt, 20pt, 25pt, 30pt, 36pt, 48pt and 60pt). It also has two more size commands: \miniscule for a smaller size than \tiny and \HUGE for a larger size than \Huge.

Packages for changing font size

If the font size y'all are looking for are not in these options, there are packages that can extend the sizing options. Extsizes parcel $Opens in a new tab.$ adds more size options to standard certificate class packages. Information technology supports 8pt, 9pt, 10pt, 11pt, 12pt, 14pt, 17pt and 20pt options for commodity, book, letter, study and proc document classes. It tin can be used by adding ext to the document course name. (For example, \documentclass[14pt]{extbook})

If you lot need more sizing commands, moresize package $Opens in a new tab.$ adds two more sizing options: \HUGE for a larger font size than \Huge and \ssmall to fill the gap between \scriptsize and \tiny. The start option has the size of 29.86pt and the latter choice has the size of 6pt when used with the default 10pt choice. This packet must be used with a non-standard, scalable font, such as Latin Modern.

The default LaTeX font Figurer Modern has individual files for a fixed set of font sizes, and it is not scalable to other sizes. It restricts the usage of fonts larger than \Huge and smaller than \tiny commands let. To avoid whatsoever issues, y'all can use a vectorized version of the Computer Modernistic font, chosen Latin Mod $Opens in a new tab.$ , as the default font family. It enables these external packages to scale the fonts up or downwards to the capricious size we demand. To enable Latin Modern, yous can add
\usepackage{lmodern} \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
to the get-go of the document.

If you want to declare the font size manually, anyfontsize packet $Opens in a new tab.$ provides an choice to scale the closest size available to the needed font size. Similar the moresize parcel, this command only works with a non-standard, scalable font. If you need a size smaller than \tiny, larger than \Huge, or an exact size such equally xix.5pt, y'all can employ the syntax beneath:

\fontsize{size}{baselineskip}\selectfont

In this command, size represents the font size yous need, and baselineskip is for the line spacing size between 2 successive lines. As a rule of thumb, baselineskip is usually 1.2x the font size. To activate the baselineskip, the text in the telescopic of the command needs to terminate with a \par, just like the usual font size commands. Following case shows the command in action.

{\fontsize{30pt}{36pt}\selectfont 30pt}  {\Huge Huge}  {\fontsize{15pt}{18pt}\selectfont 15pt}  {\tiny tiny}  {\fontsize{3pt}{3.6pt}\selectfont 3pt}

If yous need to apply a sure font size again and again, you tin also define a new font size command. Following piece of lawmaking creates a new font size command chosen myfontsize.

\newcommand\myfontsize{\fontsize{15pt}{18pt}\selectfont}  Normal size {\myfontsize My font size}

Summary

Modify the font size of a slice of text using these commands, from the largest to the smallest: \Huge, \huge, \LARGE, \Large, \big, \normalsize, \small, \footnotesize, \scriptsize, and \tiny.
Set the font size of the whole document by adding an option to the \documentclass command. (10pt, 11pt, and 12pt are available on most classes.)
Extsizes package makes more than sizes from 8pt to 20pt bachelor for the whole certificate.
Moresize package adds two more than size commands: \HUGE and \ssmall.
With anyfontsize package, we tin can set the font size specifically past using \fontsize{size}{baselineskip}\selectfont command.