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I use TeTeX with fairly basic packages:

\usepackage [koi8-r] {inputenc}
\usepackage [russian] {babel}
\usepackage {cmap}
\usepackage {amssymb}
\usepackage {verbatim}
\usepackage {titlesec}
\usepackage {courier}
\usepackage {pscyr}
\usepackage {amsmath}

The default font family is rmdefault. Font witdth and height and the bold font are perfect, but the strokes of the regular text and formulas fonts are too thin, so the printed document is uncomfortable to read. Is there a way to fix this?

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Out of interest, why do you use teTeX, rather than an up to date distribution? –  Ian Thompson Aug 29 '13 at 20:47
I use FreeBSD, there is still no binary packets of LiveTeX. LiveTeX can be compiled manually without problems, but i couldn't install decent cyrillic fonts like pscyr. On the other hand TeTeX runs out of the box and there is pscyr package. So far tetex does what i need. But i know that it is extremely outdated. –  Ordev Agens Aug 30 '13 at 18:42
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1 Answer

up vote 4 down vote accepted

Unfortunately, Computer Modern (and its derivatives) are thin, since Dr. Knuth measured actual physical matrices rather than printed samples, and modern printing techniques don't get the increase in weight caused by ink gain and impression which the hot metal Monotype Modern 8a was designed for.

There are some options in the METAFONT source for controlling the heaviness, but these aren't available when using CM-Super or Latin Modern, or a Type 1 version of Computer Modern. See Latin Modern vs cm-super? for a discussion of the differences between Latin Modern and CM-Super (which you're using).

For actual printing, you could set the MF options and generate new bitmaps to use (as a Type 3 bitmap font), but that's an awkward solution. Some computer display systems allow one to configure the settings for type display on an LCD and one can bias them to result in heavier fonts, but that's a rather extreme solution.

Computer Modern's Typewriter font is much heavier than Courier though, so I find it odd that you're explicitly choosing to use the latter.

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Thank you very much for your reply. Courier is included for using Listings package. It doesn't affect regular text. I tried to use package times and lmodern. But it didn't change anything. –  Ordev Agens Aug 30 '13 at 18:51
Latin Modern should have pretty much the same appearance as Computer Modern --- it was designed to be a drop-in replacement. Odd that times didn't have a marked change. If you're willing to change fonts, have you tried \usepackage{mathptmx}? Or see if there's some other option you like here on Will Robertson's nifty page: tug.org/mactex/fonts/LaTeX_Preamble-Font_Choices.html –  WillAdams Aug 30 '13 at 18:55
This helped, thank you so much. Math font is stronger now. Cheers. –  Ordev Agens Aug 30 '13 at 22:41
After googling some more I did the following: \renewcommand{\rmdefault}{ftm} and \boldmath. Text still could be better a bit stronger, but math is astonishing. –  Ordev Agens Aug 31 '13 at 8:02
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