Fonts and Encodings

Last updated on 2025-05-06 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 12 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • How do you write a lesson using R Markdown and sandpaper?

Objectives

  • Explain how to use markdown with the new lesson template
  • Demonstrate how to include pieces of code, figures, and nested challenge blocks

documentclass Parameters

In an earlier episode we learned that we can change the font size of the entire document by changing the \documentclass command. For example, we can change the font size to 12pt by using:

LATEX 

\documentclass[12pt]{article}

But we can add other parameters to this command to change the overall layout of the document. For example, we can set the size of the document to A4 paper by using:

LATEX 

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}

We can also change the entire document to a two-column layout by using:

LATEX 

\documentclass[twocolumn]{article}

And we can of course combine these options:

LATEX 

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt,twocolumn]{article}

Fonts

We saw earlier that we can create commands of our own in LaTeX, but there is also a renewcommand command that let’s us change the definition of an existing command. This might be useful if you want the definition of a command to change throughout the document, however there are also some commands that are pre-defined that we can modify with this command.

For Example, we can change the font of the entire document by adding the following line to the preamble/custom-commands.tex file:

LATEX 

% Change the font of the entire document to a monospace font
\renewcommand{\familydefault}{\ttdefault}

When you compile the document you should see something like this:

IMAGE GOES HERE

More Fonts

Unfortunately, the default LaTeX installation does not come with many fonts. However, there are additional packages that you can include if you are looking for a specific font. Let’s try making our document look like it’s using the Times New Roman font. To do this, all we need to do is add the following import to the preamble/packages.tex file:

LATEX 

\usepackage{tgtermes}

Callout

You can find a large selection of fonts at The LaTeX Font Catalogue, complete with examples of how to use them in your document.

Challenges

Challenge 1:

We saw how to change the font of the entire document using the \renewcommand command. But what if only want a specific section of the document to be in a different font? What would we have to modify in the following code to make the text in the first \section{} command use a different font?

LATEX 

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tgtermes}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\begin{document}

\texttt{
\section{My Section}
\lipsum[1]
}


\section{My Other Section}
\lipsum[2]

\end{document}

LATEX 

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tgtermes}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\begin{document}

\section{My Section}
\renewcommand{\familydefault}{\ttdefault}
\lipsum[1]

\section{My Other Section}
\renewcommand{\familydefault}{\rmdefault}
\lipsum[2]

\end{document}

Challenge 2:

Key Points

  • Use .md files for episodes when you want static content
  • Use .Rmd files for episodes when you need to generate output
  • Run sandpaper::check_lesson() to identify any issues with your lesson
  • Run sandpaper::build_lesson() to preview your lesson locally