T1 encoding in pdfLaTeX makes default sans-serif too wide

[alobrv]

Maybe this is out of the usage expected from this template, but if the titles are modified to use sans-serif font instead of small caps serif, T1 encoding makes the TeX default cmss font appear oddly wide and unbalanced. Titles appear normal when using the default OT1 encoding.

Even using the provided title style (small caps with serif), the default serif cmr produces different results, with OT1 encoding looking a bit better.

This issue only appear to affect the CM family, but given that it is a fairly popular font choice, perhaps it is be better to use \RequirePackage[OT1]{fontenc} or just leave it unspecified if there is no downside to it?

[Pseudomanifold]

Thanks for mentioning this! I am not up-to-date with all the encodings any more, but I was under the impression that OT1 is the older one. Is that correct? I don't want to leave the encoding unspecified because it causes problems when copying text from the document. What do you think about an FAQ item?

[alobrv]

Yes, that seems like a good solution! You are right about OT1 being indeed the older encoding. Since T1 needs to be enforced to avoid those copying problems, maybe it is worth mentioning that default CM will not work properly in this scenario and other alternatives such as \usepackage{lmodern} are probably a better fit.

There is more info on this in:

• https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/113808/why-is-the-cmss-font-in-ot1-and-t1-very-different
• https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/1291/why-are-bitmap-fonts-used-automatically

[Pseudomanifold]

Thanks a lot for the additional links! I updated the FAQ accordingly and linked to this issue.