Using 10pt fonts with the fourier package actually gives me 9.17pt

Question

I am using the fourier package to produce output (containing math) that I can insert into another document using the same (Utopia) font and have matching text styles.

But when I set the font size to 10pt, LaTeX actually gives me 9.17pt (as verified with Acrobat)! Why does this happen? How can I force the font size to the "true" value, 10 points? If I choose 12pt, I only get 11pt. The point is that it doesn't match the other document I'm inserting the LaTeX-generated PDF into.

Minimal example:

\documentclass[10pt]{article}
\usepackage{fourier}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

\begin{document}
text here
\end{document}

Answer 1

I'm pretty sure it is scaled to 0.92, which would explain what you're seeing in Acrobat. (Unfortunately, I can't verify since acroread doesn't seem to have this option, which also means I can't be 100% sure that you are now getting something Adobe will call 10pt.)

If you are using the non-expert set of Adobe Utopia Regular with Fourier, you can set the scale factor manually. Here's a rather low-level example.

\documentclass[10pt]{article}

\usepackage{fourier}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

% from T1futs.fd
\DeclareFontFamily{T1}{futs}{\providecommand {\SetFourierSpace }{}}

% Note:
% m  = medium
% n  = normal
% b  = bold
% it = italic
% sc = small caps
% sl = slant

\DeclareFontShape{T1}{futs}{m}{n}{
        <-> s * [.75] futr8t  % <-- note the explicit scale to '0.75'
  }{\SetFourierSpace}

\DeclareFontShape{T1}{futs}{m}{it}{
   <-> s * [1.5] futri8t      % <-- regular italics scaled to '1.5'
}{\SetFourierSpace}

\DeclareFontShape{T1}{futs}{b}{n}{
   <-> futb8t
}{\SetFourierSpace}

\DeclareFontShape{T1}{futs}{b}{it}{
   <-> futbi8t
}{\SetFourierSpace}

\DeclareFontShape{T1}{futs}{m}{sc}{
   <-> futrc8t
}{\SetFourierSpace}

\DeclareFontShape{T1}{futs}{b}{sc}{
   <-> futbc8t
}{\SetFourierSpace}

\DeclareFontShape{T1}{futs}{m}{sl}{
   <-> futro8t
}{\SetFourierSpace}

\DeclareFontShape{T1}{futs}{b}{sl}{
   <-> futbo8t
}{\SetFourierSpace}

\DeclareFontShape{T1}{futs}{bx}{n}{<->ssub * futs/b/n}{}
\DeclareFontShape{T1}{futs}{bx}{it}{<->ssub * futs/b/it}{}
\DeclareFontShape{T1}{futs}{bx}{sc}{<->ssub * futs/b/sc}{}
\DeclareFontShape{T1}{futs}{bx}{sl}{<->ssub * futs/b/sl}{}


\parskip  10pt
\parindent 0pt

\begin{document}

3/4 scale for regular text. 1234567890

\emph{1.5x scale for italics. 1234567890}

\textsc{\ldots and everything else is ``scaled''}
\textbf{to ``1.0''}

\end{document}

I'm sure there must be a better way, but I tend to use fontspec nowadays, so I tend to recommend its use over fiddling with the complicated world of fonts....

Addendum: If you find the lines look too cramped due to the 'unscaling', you could add to your preamble:

\usepackage{setspace}
\setstretch{1.09}%   1/.92 = 1.086956522

... and as an example, try this:

\usepackage{multicol}
...
% after \begin{document}
\begin{multicols*}{2}
  \begin{spacing}{1.0}% change to 1.09 to see the difference
  \lipsum[1]
  \columnbreak    
  \fontfamily{cmr}\selectfont % Computer Modern as a point of comparison
  \lipsum[1]      
\end{multicols*}