Make entire document heavier using pdfrender

This is a follow up question to this answer of this question.

The code given in the answer above seems to break for any extensible horizontal bars such as the vinculum, square root bar, and \overline{...}.

In addition, footnotes are also not made heavier.

What do I need to do this make pdfrender work over every part of the document?

Example:

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{amsmath,amsthm, amssymb}
\usepackage{pdfrender,xcolor}
\begin{document}

\pdfrender{StrokeColor=black,TextRenderingMode=2,LineWidth=1pt}

\begin{equation*}
x = \frac{-b \pm \sqrt{b^2 - 4ac}}{2a}
\end{equation*}

Law of Quadratic Reciprocity.
\begin{equation*}
\Bigl(\frac{p}{q}\Bigr)
\Bigl(\frac{q}{p}\Bigr)
=
(-1)^{\frac{p-1}{2} \frac{q-1}{2}}
\end{equation*}

Complex norm.
\begin{equation*}
a^2 + b^2 = (a+bi) (\overline{a+bi})
\end{equation*}
\end{document}


which gives the output:

• One should use \Bigl and \Bigr instead of \Big to get the correct spacing. Apr 27 '13 at 5:26
• Didn't know that. Thanks! (I changed the code above, but there's no need to change the picture.) Apr 27 '13 at 5:37

You might want to make sure (i.e. check the documentation) that pdfrender is supposed to actually affect non-text elements, too: does it promise to be capable of modifying line width for all kinds of paths? I'm not so sure. It may well be that the behavoir you're getting is within the limits of what's to be expected from that package -- or from the ›raw‹ method that pdfrender relies on.

As for the footnotes (and page numbers!), it is possible to apply additional line width here. We have to re-state \pdfrender for these elements.

\documentclass[12pt]{scrartcl}
\usepackage{amsmath,amsthm,amssymb}
\usepackage{pdfrender,xcolor,scrpage2}
\pdfrender{StrokeColor=black,TextRenderingMode=2,LineWidth=1pt}

%faux ink gain page numbers
\cfoot{\pdfrender{StrokeColor=black,TextRenderingMode=2,LineWidth=1pt}\thepage}

%faux ink gain footnotes
\makeatletter
\long\def\@makefntext#1{\leavevmode%
\pdfrender{StrokeColor=black,TextRenderingMode=2,LineWidth=0.2pt}%
\@thefnmark)~\nobreak
\relax#1%
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}
\hrule

\footnote{lorem ipsum}

\begin{equation*}
x = \frac{-b \pm \sqrt{b^2 - 4ac}}{2a}
\end{equation*}

Law of Quadratic Reciprocity.
\begin{equation*}
\Bigl(\frac{p}{q}\Bigr)
\Bigl(\frac{q}{p}\Bigr)
=
(-1)^{\frac{p-1}{2} \frac{q-1}{2}}
\end{equation*}

Complex norm.
\begin{equation*}
a^2 + b^2 = (a+bi) (\overline{a+bi})
\end{equation*}
\end{document}


Compare the raw method -- re-stating isn't necessary, but as for text vs. other things, the same limitations apply:

\documentclass[12pt]{scrartcl}
\usepackage{amsmath,amsthm,amssymb}
\pdfliteral direct {2 Tr 1.5 w}

\begin{document}
\hrule
\footnote{lorem ipsum}
Law of Quadratic Reciprocity.
\begin{equation*}
\Bigl(\frac{p}{q}\Bigr)
\Bigl(\frac{q}{p}\Bigr)
=
(-1)^{\frac{p-1}{2} \frac{q-1}{2}}
\end{equation*}
\end{document}


That said, I still think all this is not going to get you far if your goal is heavier strokes and a ›darker‹ page color. IMHO you're trying to fix a problem by creating an even greater one. I'd say there's no alternative to choosing a different font. One font that's been specifically designed with your problem in mind (bad printing conditions) is Matthew Carters Charter. It's included with most TeX distributions, and there's math support as well.

• Thanks for the tip on the Charter font. I really like its clarity. Apr 8 '15 at 10:24