PDF Font too light/faint

OlofL · Post by **OlofL** » Thu Jun 16, 2011 6:15 am

Hi! I'm a LyX causal user and have searched around but not found an answer to this issue. When I export to pdf the font is very weak, as in faint or light. The headings are ok but the text body is almost too faint to read. The dvi export looks much better. I use 1.6.7 under Windows 7 with default settings as far as I can tell.

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meho_r · Post by **meho_r** » Thu Jun 16, 2011 8:29 pm

Can you please provide an example PDF file which shows the issue? Also, a .lyx file which produced the example would be useful.

OlofL · Post by **OlofL** » Mon Jun 20, 2011 3:49 pm

meho_r wrote:Can you please provide an example PDF file which shows the issue? Also, a .lyx file which produced the example would be useful.

I tried attaching both the lyx and pdf file but they were bigger than the limit. Suggestion? Thanks in advance.

meho_r · Post by **meho_r** » Mon Jun 20, 2011 4:52 pm

How big are they?

Try putting both files in a ZIP archive and try uploading again.

OlofL · Post by **OlofL** » Mon Jun 20, 2011 5:06 pm

Here's the LyX-file. The PDF is about 0.5 MB and won't compress down to the permitted 200-something kB. Do you have a mail address I can send it to?

meho_r · Post by **meho_r** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 10:31 am

Well, what I meant with an example file is just a page or two with some dummy text. This is a larger document with 4 or 5 figures in it, that's why it's larger than 256 KB. However, back to text, is this the same what you get? If this is too light, you might want to try another fonts. E.g., in Document > Settings > Fonts, try setting "Roman" to Palatino or Utopia or Times Roman and see if you like them. All these fonts have math support, so you're equations should stay intact.

OlofL · Post by **OlofL** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 1:12 pm

Mine is actually even worse. I have printed the first pages of the pdf-file to pdf and attached them. Tell me what you think.

meho_r · Post by **meho_r** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 3:53 pm

Hmmm, bitmapped font is used in your example, not T1 (although \usepackage[T1]{fontenc} is specified in source).

Try this: open Document > Settings > Fonts and do the following:

1. Set LaTeX Font Encoding to Custom, and type T1 in the field on the right.

2. Set Roman to Latin Modern Roman.

Now compile the document, zoom to 400% or even more in resulting PDF file and see if the font is smooth or not.

More infos in User Guide, section 3.7.2.

OlofL · Post by **OlofL** » Wed Jun 22, 2011 4:32 pm

meho_r wrote:Hmmm, bitmapped font is used in your example, not T1 (although \usepackage[T1]{fontenc} is specified in source).

Try this: open Document > Settings > Fonts and do the following:

1. Set LaTeX Font Encoding to Custom, and type T1 in the field on the right.

2. Set Roman to Latin Modern Roman.

Now compile the document, zoom to 400% or even more in resulting PDF file and see if the font is smooth or not.

More infos in User Guide, section 3.7.2.

I do not have the Latex Font Encoding setting under Document > Settings > Fonts, but your step 2 did a world of difference

! Thanks, I will experiment a bit more with the font settings.

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LyX ⇒ PDF Font too light/faint