---
myst:
  html_meta:
    keywords: LaTeX,fonts"
---
# Using the Latin Modern fonts

The <ctanpkg:lm> fonts are an exciting addition to the armoury of the (La)TeX user : high quality outlines of fonts that were until recently difficult to obtain, all in a free and relatively compact package. However, the spartan information file that comes with the fonts remarks "It is presumed that a potential user knows what to do with all these files". This answer aims to fill in the requirements : the job is really not terribly difficult.

Note that teTeX distributions, from version 3.0, already have the <ctanpkg:lm> fonts : all you need do is use them. The fonts may also be installed via the package manager, in a current MiKTeX system. The remainder of this answer, then, is for people who don't use such systems.

The font (and related) files appear on CTAN as a set of single-entry [TDS trees](faquk:FAQ-tds) --- `fonts`, `dvips`, `tex` and `doc`. The `doc` subtree really need not be copied (it's really a pair of sample files), but copy the other three into your existing Local `$TEXMF` tree, and [update the filename database](faquk:FAQ-inst-wlcf).

Now, incorporate the fonts in the set searched by pdfLaTeX, `dvips`, `dvipdfm`/`dvipdfmx`, your previewers and Type 1-to-PK conversion programs, by

- On a teTeX system earlier than version 2.0, edit the file
`$TEXMF/dvips/config/updmap` and insert an absolute path for the `lm.map` just after the
line that starts `extra_modules="` (and before the closing
quotes).

- On a teTeX version 2.0 (or later), execute the command `updmap --enable Map
lm.map`.

- On a MiKTeX system earlier than version 2.2, the "Refresh filename database"
operation, which you performed after installing files, also updates the system's "PostScript resources database".

- On a MiKTeX system, version 2.2 or later, update `updmap.cfg` as described in
the MiKTeX [online
documentation](https://docs.miktex.org/manual/advanced.html#psfonts).

To use the fonts in a LaTeX document, you should `\usepackage{lmodern}` this
will make the fonts the default for all three LaTeX font families ("roman",
"sans-serif" and "typewriter). You also need `\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}` for
text, and `\usepackage{textcomp}` if you want to use any of the TS1-encoding
symbols. There is no support for using fonts according to the OT1 encoding.

:::{sources}
[Using the Latin Modern fonts](faquk:FAQ-uselmfonts)
:::