How to make front-matter page number non-bold in ToC?

Question

Shown in the following pic:

It seems the Roman page number for front-matter look too dark in ToC, so how to make it as normal font but not change the bold Arabic number for chapters?

Answer 1

Your global setting may differ slightly, but the following works:

\documentclass{book} 
\makeatletter
\def\@pnum@font{\bfseries}% Default is \bfseries
\renewcommand*\l@chapter[2]{% Taken from book.cls
  \ifnum \c@tocdepth >\m@ne
    \addpenalty{-\@highpenalty}%
    \vskip 1.0em \@plus\p@
    \setlength\@tempdima{1.5em}%
    \begingroup
      \parindent \z@ \rightskip \@pnumwidth
      \parfillskip -\@pnumwidth
      \leavevmode \bfseries
      \advance\leftskip\@tempdima
      \hskip -\leftskip
      #1\nobreak\hfil \nobreak\hb@xt@\@pnumwidth{\hss\@pnum@font #2}\par
      \penalty\@highpenalty
    \endgroup
  \fi}
\g@addto@macro{\frontmatter}{\addtocontents{toc}{\protect\def\protect\@pnum@font{\normalfont}}}
\g@addto@macro{\mainmatter}{\addtocontents{toc}{\protect\def\protect\@pnum@font{\bfseries}}}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\tableofcontents
\frontmatter
\chapter{Acknowledgements}
\chapter{Abstract}
\chapter{List of Figures}
\chapter{List of Tables}
\chapter{Nomenclature}
\mainmatter
\chapter{Introduction}
\section{Problem and motivation}
\section{Objectives}
\section{Research and methodology}
\subsection{Continuum}
%...
\end{document}

The macro responsibly for setting the \chapter titles in the ToC is \l@chapter. I've copied it from book.cls and inserted \@pnum@font where it sets the actual page number. By default, this has been defined to be \bfseries so that it prints in bold. Adding a \normalfont modification to \frontmatter and reversing it at \mainmatter (both using \g@addto@macro) causes a display that you're after.

Since writing to the ToC has to be done with care (to avoid expansion), using \protect is necessary.

Answer 2

It nearly works in my case. See.

[XeLatex in Texlive 2012 Ubuntu]

The first front page number is bold and the chapter 1 number is normal.

I don't know why this happened, here is the tex code:

 \documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{book}
 \include{Setting/settings}    % <----- page layout, font, renewcommands etc.

 \begin{document}
 \include{Cover/cover}     % cover page
 \frontmatter              % book mode only

 \pagenumbering{Roman}   
 \include{Acknowledgement/acknowledgement}
 \include{Abstract/abstract}

 {\hypersetup{linkcolor=black}
 \tableofcontents }
 \listoffigures  
 \listoftables  
 \printnomenclature[1.6 cm]  
 \clearpage

 \mainmatter % book mode only
 \include{Introduction/introduction}
 \include{Chapter2/chapter2}
 \include{Chapter3/chapter3}
 \include{Chapter4/chapter4}
 \include{Conclusions/conclusions}

 ....

TOC content

\contentsline {chapter}{Acknowledgements}{i}{chapter*.1}
\def \@pnum@font {\normalfont }
\contentsline {chapter}{Abstract}{iii}{chapter*.2}
\contentsline {chapter}{List of Figures}{vii}{chapter*.4}
\contentsline {chapter}{List of Tables}{ix}{chapter*.5}
\contentsline {chapter}{Nomenclature}{xi}{chapter*.6}
\contentsline {chapter}{\numberline {1}Introduction}{1}{chapter.1}
\contentsline {section}{\numberline {1.1}Problem and motivation}{1}{section.1.1}
\contentsline {section}{\numberline {1.2}Objectives}{3}{section.1.2}
\contentsline {section}{\numberline {1.3}Research methodology}{4}{section.1.3}
\contentsline {subsection}{\numberline {1.3.1}Continuum}{4}{subsection.1.3.1}
\contentsline {subsection}{\numberline {1.3.2}Discontinuum}{4}{subsection.1.3.2}
\contentsline {section}{\numberline {1.4}Thesis outline}{6}{section.1.4}
\def \@pnum@font {\bfseries }
\contentsline {chapter}{References}{9}{chapter*.7}
\contentsline {chapter}{Appendix A}{11}{appendix*.8}
\contentsline {chapter}{Appendix B}{13}{appendix*.9}

\usepackage[nottoc]{tocbibind} is used to exclude 'Contents' in the list. Only Chapter 1 is included for test.

If I put \def \@pnum@font {\normalfont } on top and \def \@pnum@font {\bfseries } below Nomenclature in TOC, then recompile it, it works. But if run Bibtex, the orders will be of course disturbed again.