Accommodations: Changing Font Size and Type in LaTeX Exams

Some students have an accommodation for a larger font size or specific font type on exams. This article provides a guide and answers to frequently asked questions about changing fonts in exams created in LaTeX.

Changing font family

LaTex uses the Computer Modern typeface family by default, which includes options for serif, sans serif, and monospaced (typewriter) fonts. Documentation for changing fonts is available on the Overleaf font typefaces guide and the LaTeX 2e documentation.

Guide to alternative fonts in LaTeX

If an accommodation requires a font that is not available in LaTeX, you can use the following alternative fonts. Overleaf has a font reference guide that offers previews as well as font package names and font codes. 

• Arial or sans-serif fonts
  • Helvetica
  • Computer Modern Sans Serif
  • Latin Modern Sans Serif
• Times New Roman or serif fonts
  • Times
  • Computer Modern Roman
  • Latin Modern Roman
• Courier or monospaced/typewriter fonts
  • Courier
  • Computer Modern Typewriter
  • Latin Modern Sans Typewriter
  • TeX Gyre Cursor

Changing font size in LaTeX

Font sizes in LaTeX documents are relative to the numerical size set in the \documentclass in the document preamble.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}

If no font size is specified in the \documentclass, the default size is 10pt. For article, book, letter, and report classes, the only available font sizes are 10pt, 11pt, and 12pt.

If the accommodation specifies a font larger than 12pt, use the standard type size commands to increase the size of the font. These commands are case sensitive, so \large, \Large, and \LARGE all result in different font sizes.

\begin{document}

\LARGE

The LaTeX 2e documentation contains a chart showing the resulting font sizes with each command. For quick reference, the table below shows recommended font sizes based on a 10pt font document. The Overleaf documentation has further options and explanations for how to change font sizes in LaTeX.