How do I set the font size to 11.5? 12 is too large and 11 is too small.
I used
\documentclass[titlepage,11.5pt]{article}
but it still gives me size 11
3 Answers
the options 10pt, 11pt and 12pt are not lengths at all they are simply strings used as option names that suggest the size of \normalsize (although 11pt doesn't set \normalsize to 11pt, but 10.95pt)
They are the only three size related options but you can request a font of any size
\fontsize{11.4pt}{2cm}\selectfont
requests an 11.4pt font on a 2cm baseline.
For most fonts you will get the size requested. For reasons of historical compatibility, if you do this with the default computer modern fonts then the size will be set to one of a discrete list of sizes, however if you put
\RequirePackage{fix-cm}
at the top of the document, this restriction will be lifted and fonts will be used at the requested size.
Note that the size options do far more than just set the font size they also specify suitable page sizes, and suitable lengths around lists and displays, and section headings etc.
answered Feb 7, 2019 at 23:23
KOMA-script allows you to specify any size for your main font, so you could use
\documentclass[titlepage, fontsize=11.5pt]{scrartcl}
You would want to select either package fix-cm or lmodern to change to a font that works at non-standard sizes. Any Type1 font should also be fine.
Many font packages have an option like [scale=0.958] or [scaled=0.958]. (11.5/12.0 ≈ 0.958.) Finally, if you’re using fontspec, you could do:
\documentclass[titlepage, 12pt]{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\defaultfontfeatures{Scale = MatchLowercase}
\setmainfont{Latin Modern Roman}[
Scale = 0.958,
Ligatures = {Common, TeX}]
You could use package srcextend (part of the KOMA-Script bundle) together with a standard class:
\RequirePackage{fix-cm}
\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage[fontsize=11.5pt]{scrextend}
\makeatletter
\newcommand*\showfontsize{\f@size{} point}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\showfontsize
\end{document}
Related: Scrartcl 13.999 point 14.4 point but not 14 point? and Using fallback calculation to setup font sizes
articleclass only has three choices10pt,11ptand12pt, but you must not think of these like the little font size drop down menu in Microsoft word. These values are used to configure many aspects of the document layout, the size of subscripts and superscripts, the sizes of headings. Other font sizes are defined relative to these numbers. It's not designed to let you just choose an arbitrary value.