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There's a high probability that my question was asked before, but I couldn't find a good answer to it, so I'm going to pose the question again, hoping that I will get the accurate answer to my question.

I use both linux and windows with my personal cloud that synchronizes my data on multiple computers. I'm currently writing a 150+ pages scientific document on latex that uses the default latex font. After digging to know the name of that font, I found that the font name is Computer Modern Serif (Is that right?) (I use report class in latex, is that the default font for it?)

Now I have schematics and figures that I made with Inkscape. I need those to be openable in both windows and linux, but, ... I couldn't find the font that would be common between windows and linux. Under linux, the font is called "Serif". Under windows it's called "CMU Serif", of course after manually installing it on windows.

How can I have a single font name for both windows and linux (without manually messing font names) so that I don't have to change the name of the font the whole time? I expect to have a font that has exactly the same name from linux, and then just install it on windows, and voila! No problem anymore in both operating systems.

1- Is that possible?

2- Are the font names I mentioned correct? I really am lost in this.

Please advise.

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  • although i don't know the answer to your question (which implies "system fonts" for linux and windows), i am rather confused by the name "cmu serif". the main computer modern text font, as used by tex, is known to tex users as "cmr" (for "computer modern roman", a serif font). in that system, "cmu" is a different font -- unslanted italic (also a serif font, but with quite a different lettershapes). but as you want to use the fonts outside of a tex environment, it's possible that different names have been assigned.
    – barbara beeton
    Sep 22, 2014 at 18:31
  • @barbarabeeton I suspected at the beginning of my search that the font name should have something to do with "roman" due to similarity of the latex font with Times New Roman of windows... but after digging a lot, I found only CMU Serif to look like the latex font... This issue gave me headache... and that's why I'm asking also for the font name and whether it's incorrect. Thank you for your comment.
    – The Quantum Physicist
    Sep 22, 2014 at 18:35
  • @barbarabeeton cm-unicode includes an opentype font with the name CMU Serif Roman. Perhaps that is it?
    – cfr
    Sep 22, 2014 at 18:35
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    Is Latin Modern Roman an option for you? It is very similar to Computer Modern and I think it would be more straightforward to keep track of in terms of names etc. TeX distributions already include opentype versions which you could install as system fonts for both Linux and Windows. In your TeX document, \usepackage{lmodern} would select the type1 version of the font and this should match pretty much perfectly. (Whereas I'm not sure whether that will be as easy for CM.)
    – cfr
    Sep 22, 2014 at 18:37
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    ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/lm/fonts/opentype/public/lm includes the fonts in opentype format. But whatever font file you installed on Windows, you can install on Linux. That is, you are not worried about what is installed for TeX here. You just need to make sure Inkscape has access to the same font on the two systems. You've got the file you installed on Windows, so install that on Linux.
    – cfr
    Sep 23, 2014 at 14:08

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Well, sorry, but I think you're wanting to do this bigger than it is. You can use a font that you want to LaTeX. There is a good catalog of native fonts and you can always use ttf and otf fonts using XeLaTeX as you know.

On the other hand, Computer Modern is a very good source, ideal for working with math, but not the only one. You say you're using Latin Modern Roman that it's another project.

I think there is a confusion at this point. According to this article in the wikipedia and the references related, you can get the font family from here in open Type format, suitable for use with Inkscape and easy to install in Windows (leave aside for a moment to gnu/linux to keep things simple).

Also @cfr sent you the path for download the Latin Modern fonts in open type. In my own experience isn't hard to install this kind of fonts. I would download all the files from the directory for get all the weights and variations of the font available.

This would be enough for satisfy the point 1 of your question.

To answer the second point, you need to know something about fonts to begin the fact that not always the family name is synonymous with guarantee. Often fonts with the same name but produced by different manufacturers differ in details to each other. There is almost always subtle differences in strokes in the number of glyphs and sometimes includes encoding of some characters. The more delicate is the kerning, which can produce ugly spaces in LaTeX.

In that sense, my suggestion is to try the versions stored on CTAN, which although Open Type, can be used either to LaTeX.

The latest idea or option, is to try XeLaTeX and another font. However the problem is that commercial fonts have a very small set of mathematical symbols. There are pi fonts that complement but are not very extensive, and are not always combine well with the main font.

To me, for example, I like to use Palatino by Hermann Zapf, so in LaTeX I can use mathpazo (extended version of Palatino for mathematics in LaTeX), thus I can happily use Palatino in Inkscape, Illustrator or whatever.This works great if you don't require special symbols to create diagrams. I don't know if it's your case, but I hope this helps.

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