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Date:         Thu, 8 Jan 2015 11:11:46 +0000
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From: Joseph Wright <joseph.wright@MORNINGSTAR2.CO.UK>
Subject: Re: fix-cm and optical sizes
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Status: R

On 08/01/2015 09:58, Ulrike Fischer wrote:
> When loading fix-cm less optical sizes are used and so huge size are
> much bolder than without it:
> 
> \documentclass{article}
> \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
> \pagestyle{empty}
> \begin{document}
> \Huge\bfseries
> % without fix-cm
> % ecbx2488 
> % sfbx2488.pfb
> 
> % with fix-cm
> % ecbx1200 at 24.88pt
> % sfbx1200.pfb
> %\fontname\font
> 
> \sffamily
> % without fix-cm
> % ecsx2488
> % sfsx2488.pfb
> 
> % with fix-cm
> % ecsx1000 at 24.88pt
> % sfsx1000.pfb
> \fontname\font
> \end{document}
> 
> The documentation says 
> 
> "Only those design sizes of the fonts will be used, that are
> normally available in Type1 format, too. You need not load the
> extra package cmmib57 for this purpose."
> 
> I do find the reference to an old (and now obsolete) package like
> cmmib57 (http://mirrors.ctan.org/fonts/amsfonts/doc/cmmib57.pdf)
> quite dubious. And with the cm-super fonts there are certainly more
> design sizes available than used by the sty. 
> 
> I do understand that is could be problematic to change fix-cm as it
> could change existing definitions. But couldn't one create a
> new-fix-cm.sty with better font definitions?

Isn't the point of fix-cm to address the difference between OT1 and T1?
The docs say

> The appearance of the T1 and TS1 encoded CM fonts (aka ‘EC’) is made
> as similar as possible to the traditional (OT1 encoded) ones.

although it does also say

> In contrast to what you may expect, fix-cm does not ensure that line
> and page breaks stay the same ...

If I run your demo without loading any packages at all I get

   cmbx12 at 24.88pt
   cmbx12.pfb

   cmbss10 at 24.88pt
   cmssbx10.pfb

which is as close as the EC fonts can get to the original CM ones, I
think. Certainly there is a lot more visual difference between OT1 and
T1 when fix-cm is not loaded than when it is.
--
Joseph Wright