When I load multiple font packages, which one will win?

Question

I haven't used more than one font package. But I noticed some people use multiple font packages. Shortly speaking, which one will win if we load multiple font packages?

Is there a rule for loading multiple font packages?

Answer 1

It depends.

Generally speaking, the font you get is the last one you specified. Thus usually when you use multiple font packages, the last one wins.

However, it depends on the actual commands in the packages. A font package do not always do the same thing as another font package, some times they work together.

An example is:

\usepackage{times}
\usepackage{utopia}

If you use the two packages in your document, you will see the main font is Utopia. You may say utopia wins. That isn't the truth. You might also notice that \textsf becomes Helvetica and \texttt becomes Courier, that's times package's effect.

When you look into the code of the packages, you will know why:

% in times.sty
\renewcommand{\sfdefault}{phv}
\renewcommand{\rmdefault}{ptm}
\renewcommand{\ttdefault}{pcr}

% in utopia.sty
\renewcommand{\rmdefault}{put}
\renewcommand\bfdefault{b}

What we obtain at last is the same as:

% mixed
\renewcommand{\sfdefault}{phv}
\renewcommand{\ttdefault}{pcr}
\renewcommand{\rmdefault}{put}
\renewcommand\bfdefault{b}