Background
Relatively new LaTeX user going mad here.
All I want to do is use the Day Ramon S font, but it seems nigh on impossible to do so.
Question
What is the secret to using fonts in (La)TeX? Is there any rhyme, reason, or rules of thumb to follow? Or do I need to just keep trying random combinations of the patterns I have found until something works?
note
Although all I really want to do is use Day Roman S, I have intentionally kept the question focused on fonts in general as there doesn't seem to be any bullet-proof advice on working with fonts. I see a lot of solutions for specific problems, and even fonts in general, but as can be seen in the next section, it's all a jumble.
note 2
Yes, I have RTFM for the Day Roman S font in question, it is installed, and has been reinstalled several times. It's still a pain to figure out a consistent and reliable way to use different fonts in a document.
Previous research
In trying to figure this out, I have looked at many of the samples from FontCatalogue archive that did compile and found that there seem to be a wide variety of ways of specifying fonts. I'm not sure which to use when.
Sometimes you need to just load a package with the same name as the font and add \normalfont\normalfont twice (why?) before the text:
\usepackage{bookman}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\begin{document}
\normalfont\normalfont
Other times you need to add \normalfont\<font-name> before the text:
\usepackage{calligra}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\begin{document}
\normalfont\calligra
Still other times you need to remove ic from the font name and add family, creating \normalfont\<font-name-minus-ic>family before the text:
\usepackage{egothic}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\begin{document}
\normalfont\egothfamily
And sometimes the second command after \normalfont doesn't appear to be related to the package name at all:
\usepackage{yfonts}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\begin{document}
\normalfont\swabfamily
Sometimes you also need to use \renewcommand* after loading the font package and before loading fontenc:
\usepackage{PTSansCaption}
\renewcommand*\familydefault{\sfdefault} %% Only if the base font of the document is to be sans serif
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\begin{document}
\normalfont\normalfont
And sometimes you can do that without loading the font package first and after loading fontenc (all other examples are before):
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\renewcommand*\familydefault{\ttdefault} %% Only if the base font of the document is to be typewriter style
\begin{document}
\normalfont\normalfont
Sometimes you use \renewcommand* to set other defaults such as \rmdefault (previous two examples were \familydefault:
\renewcommand*\rmdefault{cmfib}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\begin{document}
\normalfont\normalfont
And sometimes you have to set various defaults:
\renewcommand*\ttdefault{lmvtt}
\renewcommand*\familydefault{\ttdefault} %% Only if the base font of the document is to be typewriter style
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\begin{document}
\normalfont\normalfont
Finally, some appear to require loading an .fd file (font definition?) directly rather than through the \usepackage command, set up a \newcommand* (rather than \renewcommand*), skip loading fontenc, and change the duplicated \normalfont\normalfont before the text to something more complex:
\input Carrickc.fd
\newcommand*\initfamily{\usefont{U}{Carrickc}{xl}{n}}
\begin{document}
\normalfont\initfamily
\fontsize{12mm}{12mm}\selectfont
\normalfont\normalfontwhich would not be equally well served by\normalfont. Resetting the default font series, shape and family twice is no better than doing so once. Sometimes, however,\normalfont\normalsizecan be helpful. (But that is not your problem here.)