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I compiled my LaTeX document in a new computer running Win7 and it seems that the font contrast while checking the resulting pdf document is severely decreased without having changed anything in my code. Previously, I was compiling it in Win Vista environment. Any idea? The controversial thing is that in a "Windowed viewer mode" the font seems OK, but while opening independently as an "external viewer" the pdf document, the text font seems like transparent.

First

Second

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    Can you upload two PDF documents to verify the effect? Jan 16, 2014 at 9:45
  • I added two screenshots.
    – Gregory
    Jan 16, 2014 at 9:51
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    This may be an effect of antialiasing applied by one previewer but not the other one.
    – egreg
    Jan 16, 2014 at 11:02
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    Please zoom in very strongly. I guess that one is a bitmap font (pixel font) and the other is a vector font. Try adding the lmodern package. Jan 16, 2014 at 12:17
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    check the font types (acrobat font menu or the pdffonts command line utility) If you are picking up Type3 fonts then one system is mis-configured to use the original bitmap fonts rather than scalable font versions. Jan 16, 2014 at 12:34

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It looks like the document uses bitmap fonts (see Wikipedia 1 and Wikipedia 2) and therefore the rendering looks like the contrast is less good. Zoom in very closely and you will probably see the little steps/stairs/pixel.

Try using the lmodern package (CTAN). I saw this problem several times. Sometimes it was necessary to update the LaTeX installation. Are you using MiKTeX?

If it does not look like the following screenshot (smooth even when zooming in) then it's not a vector font:

enter image description here

See also this related question. The answer from Stefan Kottwitz explains the solution in detail.

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