12

I am trying to achieve what I would call a simple customization and yet I can't manage to get it. In particular I would like to have the first letter of the paragraph written in Gothic font such as in this image

would like http://behance.vo.llnwd.net/profiles17/691966/projects/2336106/953d522a7a673748c9cb6161add26287.jpg

I tried using the packages lettrine and yfonts but it seems that I'm missing something... Here is my code yet

\documentclass[oneside, 11pt]{memoir}

\usepackage{lettrine}
\usepackage{yfonts}

\begin{document}

\yinipar{L}{orem} ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequat. Quis aute iure reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. 

\yinipar{\textgoth{L}}{orem} ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequat. Quis aute iure reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. 

\lettrine[lines=3]{\gothfamily\fontsize{50}{60}L}{orem}  ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequat. Quis aute iure reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. 

\lettrine[lines=3]{\textgoth{L}}{orem} ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequat. Quis aute iure reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. 

\end{document}

The command \yinifonts (first example) uses another font, by trying to change it (second example) I don't get the right font dimension. Using the \lettrine I feel to be much closer but I cant get to make this font 3 lines high.

|improve this question
  • Welcome to TeX.SX! You can have a look on our our starter page to familiarize yourself further with our format. – Claudio Fiandrino Aug 31 '13 at 15:28
  • I've used \lettrine[lines=3, loversize=-1, lraise=-0.15]{\initfamily L}{orem ipsum} in the past. The lraise helps hide the problem that \initfamily does not always scale well to the chosen font size (much easier to use a 12pt size for your main font and match exactly three lines, e.g.). – jon Aug 31 '13 at 15:31
6

This particular font is not available at the size you require (if you read the log LaTeX tells you that it has substituted a font). Scale it manually to suit, using scalebox.

\documentclass[oneside, 11pt]{memoir}
\usepackage{yfonts, graphicx}
\usepackage{lettrine}

\begin{document}
\lettrine[lines=3]{\gothfamily\fontsize{50}{60}\scalebox{2}{L}}{orem}  ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequat. Quis aute iure reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. 
\end{document}

You can change the \fontsize{50}{60} to higher values and you can observe the fact that no larger font size is available. Best of course to change my MWE to a small macro rather than lump the parameters with the text.

enter image description here

Scaling fonts this way is not a very good idea. Artistically when fonts are scaled up or down they use mathematical formulae to compensate for various parameters that affect their aesthetics. Best to find a scalable font.

To change the point size as per egreg's comments try this.

\documentclass[oneside, 11pt]{memoir}
\usepackage{yfonts, graphicx}
\DeclareFontShape{LYG}{ygoth}{m}{n}{<-> ygoth}{}
\usepackage{lettrine}
\begin{document}
\lettrine[lines=3]{\gothfamily\fontsize{48pt}{50pt}\selectfont L}{orem}  ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisici elit, sed eiusmod tempor incidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequat. Quis aute iure reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. 
\end{document}
|improve this answer
  • The \fontsize{50}{60} command does nothing, as it is not followed by \selectfont. Swap \fontsize and \gothfamily (this one does \selectfont). There's no need to set the baselineskip to a larger value: 0 is as good as 100, since a paragraph is not made with that font. However, choosing 50pt font size will still use 24pt because of how the font shapes are defined in yfonts.sty. – egreg Aug 31 '13 at 22:03
  • If you want \gothfamily fonts to any point size, type, after loading yfonts, \DeclareFontShape{LYG}{ygoth}{m}{n}{ <-> ygoth}{}. More or less, use 8 times the number of lines: 24pt for 3 lines, 32pt for 4 lines. – egreg Aug 31 '13 at 22:14
  • @egreg Thanks. Added a second example as per your suggestion. Had to use a higher number though. – Yiannis Lazarides Sep 1 '13 at 1:32

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.