# Odd effect of font encoding on titles, spacing, etc

My understanding of what

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}


does is based on: Why should I use \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}?

In other words, I use it for better rendering of fonts for letters containing e.g. an Umlaut.

But it seems that the font encoding changes other things as well. Here's a MWE:

\documentclass[11pt, a4paper, final]{report}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\begin{document}
\chapter{Lorem Ipsum Dolor}
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut Labore (2011) et dolore magna Aliqua (2015). Ut enim ad minim veniam: $x \odot y$, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat: $x \otimes y$. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.
\end{document}


With \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}, the chapter title, and the section name itself, i.e. "Chapter 1", are rendered thinner and letters are spaced closely. Without loading it, section title letters are thicker, and spaced more apart.

There also seems to be a difference in overall spacing between letters in non-title text.

Any suggestions what the reason for this behavior is, and if there's maybe a problem behind it I didn't notice?

• Different fonts are used. Also, the editor might show them slightly different. – Johannes_B May 28 '17 at 14:27
• @Johannes_B Output is also different in the pdf produced (would it make sense to add a screenshot to my question?). If fonts are different, is there a way to manually set fonts s.t. output is identical, regardless of whether I use 'fontenc', for letters/symbols without special characters only, of course. – Bert Zangle May 28 '17 at 14:31
• To clarify @Johannes_B’s comment: adding \usepackage{lmodern} after \usepackage[T1]{fontenc} is a good remedy; with it, different fonts are used, which reproduce with much greater accuracy the metrics of the original Computer Modern font. You will notice a different behavior in math formulas typeset at non-standard size, though. – GuM May 28 '17 at 14:41

chapter in your setup uses a 24.88pt bold font. So one can demonstrate your issue with the following document, which clearly shows that the fonts are different:

\documentclass[11pt, a4paper, final]{report}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\begin{document}\pagestyle{empty}

\fontsize{24.88pt}{30pt}\selectfont \bfseries

Lorem Ipsum Dolor

\fontencoding{OT1}\selectfont

Lorem Ipsum Dolor

\end{document}


You can find the reason if you look in the log-file or the fd-file:

The OT1-font is cmbx12.pfb: This is a 12pt font scaled up.

The T1-font is sfbx2488.pfb -- as the numbers indicate a native 24.88 pt.

Scaled up font normally looks bolder than fonts specifically designed for the size.

If you really prefer the bolder look, you can force latex to use a scaled up with T1-encoding too:

\documentclass[11pt, a4paper, final]{report}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

\DeclareFontShape{T1}{cmr}{bx}{n}
{%
<5><6><7><8><9>gen*ecbx%
<10><10.95>ecbx1000%
<12><14.4><17.28><20.74><24.88>ecbx1200%
}{}
\begin{document}\pagestyle{empty}

\fontsize{24.88pt}{30pt}\selectfont \bfseries

Lorem Ipsum Dolor

\fontencoding{OT1}\selectfont

Lorem Ipsum Dolor

\end{document}