Using 12 Pitch Monospaced Font in Latex

Question

I am trying to create a Latex document and the specification for the same asks for a 12 pitch font. After reading a bit about "pitch" I understand that I should be using a monospaced font like Courier. But I have not been able to figure out how to set the "pitch" for the font. This is a proposal and I have to abide by the specs. I would really appreciate any help.

Answer 1

I would just use 12pt, but if you want to get closer to exactly 12 characters to the inch it seems like 11.71pt is the size you need (for latin modern typewriter)

\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{lmodern}%scalable fonts

\sbox0{\texttt{123456789abc}}

\typeout{12 characters are \the\wd0 at 72.27pt to the inch}

% or if you are really fixed on 12 pitch select a font size like
\fontsize{11.706}{13}\selectfont
\sbox0{\texttt{123456789abc}}
\typeout{12 characters are \the\wd0 at 72.27pt to the inch}


\begin{document}

\end{document}

The above produces a log of

12 characters are 74.08603pt, at 72.27pt to the inch
12 characters are 72.27087pt, at 72.27pt to the inch

showing that 12 characters are 2pt more than an inch at 12pt, but selecting 11.71pt (or 11.706 if you are really paranoid) gets as close as matters.