It's a light post this week, but something that may be helpful to anyone writing a LaTeX document who wants to get the most out of fonts.
Ampersands are actually a ligature for the letters E and T. The & character looks interesting in different fonts, as some show this more clearly than others.
LaTeX has a number of fonts available, although the default Computer Modern looks quite nice, in my opinion.
To demonstrate these two points, I made a short LaTeX document (see below) that prints ampersands in different fonts.
Results:
The first character in each line is from the Roman font family, then San Serif, then teletype/monospace.
My favourites out of these fonts are:
- Bookman (1st in 3rd line)
- Zapf Chancery (1st in 4th line)—this one shows the combination of E and T most clearly
- New Century (6th line)
- Palatino (7th line)
Here is the document:
% Font demonstration with ampersands in LaTeX
\documentclass[12 pt,landscape]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[dvips]{geometry}
%Start with the CM (Computer Modern) fonts
\renewcommand*\rmdefault{cmr} %roman
\renewcommand*\sfdefault{cmss} %san serif
\renewcommand*\ttdefault{cmtt} %teletype
\begin{document}
%Each row will have ampersands from the roman, san serif, and teletype font families (in order)
\centering
\large \rmfamily \& \sffamily \& \ttfamily \&
%Switch to Latin Modern fonts
\renewcommand*\rmdefault{lmr} %roman
\renewcommand*\sfdefault{lmss} %san serif
\renewcommand*\ttdefault{lmtt} %teletype
\large \rmfamily \& \sffamily \& \ttfamily \&
%Switch to Bookman and Avant Garde and Courier
\renewcommand*\rmdefault{pbk} %roman
\renewcommand*\sfdefault{pag} %san serif
\renewcommand*\ttdefault{pcr} %teletype
\large \rmfamily \& \sffamily \& \ttfamily \&
%Switch to Zapf Chancery and Helvetica
\renewcommand*\rmdefault{pzc} %roman
\renewcommand*\sfdefault{phv} %san serif
\large \rmfamily \& \sffamily \&
%All the remaining fonts are in the Roman family: Charter, New Century, Palatino, Times
\renewcommand*\rmdefault{bch}
\large \rmfamily \&
\renewcommand*\rmdefault{pnc}
\large \rmfamily \&
\renewcommand*\rmdefault{ppl}
\large \rmfamily \&
\renewcommand*\rmdefault{ptm}
\large \rmfamily \&
\vfill
\end{document}