# Nice fonts with Plots, GR and LaTeXStrings
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/nice-fonts-with-plots-gr-and-latexstrings/60037
**Category:** Visualization
**Tags:** latex, plots, gr
**Created:** [April 26, 2021, 2:41pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/nice-fonts-with-plots-gr-and-latexstrings/60037 "2021-04-26T14:41:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@lmiq](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lmiq)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2021, 2:41pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/nice-fonts-with-plots-gr-and-latexstrings/60037/1 "2021-04-26T14:41:09Z")
This not a question, just something that might be helpful to others. With Plots 1.12 and GR0.57.4 (at least), and using these options below, one can get a plot with homogeneous fonts (“Computer Modern”) in every element.
```julia
using Plots
using LaTeXStrings
plot_font = "Computer Modern"
default(fontfamily=plot_font,
linewidth=2, framestyle=:box, label=nothing, grid=false)
scalefontsizes(1.3)
plot(sort(rand(10)),sort(rand(10)),label="Legend")
plot!(xlabel=L"\textrm{Standard text}(r) / \mathrm{cm^3}")
plot!(ylabel="Same font as everything")
annotate!(0.2,0.8,text("My note",plot_font,12))
savefig("./plot.pdf")
```
> **Previously**
>
> ```julia
> const plot_font = "Computer Modern"
> const PLOTS_DEFAULTS = Dict(:theme=>:default,
> :fontfamily => plot_font,
> :linewidth => 2,
> :framestyle => :box,
> :label => "",
> :grid => false)
> using Plots
> using LaTeXStrings
>
> plot(sort(rand(10)),sort(rand(10)),label="Legend")
> plot!(xlabel=L"\textrm{Standard text}(r) / \mathrm{cm^3}")
> plot!(ylabel="Same font as everything")
> annotate!(0.2,0.8,text("My note",plot_font,12))
>
> savefig("./plot.pdf")
>
> ```
Additionally, some basic latex is good to know:
- `\textm` removes the math mode from a latex string.
- `\mathrm` removes the italics (not math mode) from the latex string, such that, for example, the exponent looks nicely placed in a non-italic string.
What I would like sometimes is to change everything to `sffamily` fonts. But that I was unable to do consistently yet.
---
### Author:  [@gustaphe](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/gustaphe)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2021, 3:24pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/nice-fonts-with-plots-gr-and-latexstrings/60037/2 "2021-04-26T15:24:29Z")
```julia
using Unitful, Plots, Latexify, UnitfulRecipes, UnitfulLatexify
default(; # Plots defaults
fontfamily="Computer modern",
label="" # only explicit legend entries
)
set_default(; # Latexify defaults
#unitformat=:slash # in case you want `m/s`
)
x = rand(10)u"m"
v = x./(4u"s") .+ 0.3*randn(10)u"m/s"
plot(x, v; xguide="x", yguide="v", unitformat=latexify)
```
---
### Author:  [@gustaphe](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/gustaphe)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2021, 3:30pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/nice-fonts-with-plots-gr-and-latexstrings/60037/3 "2021-04-26T15:30:27Z")
---
### Author:  [@lmiq](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lmiq)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2021, 3:35pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/nice-fonts-with-plots-gr-and-latexstrings/60037/4 "2021-04-26T15:35:44Z")
Note that it does not produce the correct placement for the exponent of the unit (the difference between using `mathrm` and `textrm`):
that example:
using `\mathrm{ms^{-1}}`:
(not that everyone needs to have obsessive compulsive disorder, though, but if you are a developer of that, maybe that is something to improve in the packages).
---
### Author:  [@gustaphe](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/gustaphe)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2021, 3:39pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/nice-fonts-with-plots-gr-and-latexstrings/60037/5 "2021-04-26T15:39:17Z")
It’s actually `$v\;/\;\mathrm{m}\,\mathrm{s}^{-1}$` which I would consider the more correct behaviour.
---
### Author:  [@lmiq](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lmiq)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2021, 3:50pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/nice-fonts-with-plots-gr-and-latexstrings/60037/6 "2021-04-26T15:50:15Z")
Well, I don’t agree that produced the correct output there. Actually here all look the same, and correspond to what I think is the correct placement:
`ms^{-1}`: ms^{-1}
`\mathrm{ms^{-1}}`: \mathrm{ms^{-1}}
`\mathrm{ms}^{-1}`: \mathrm{ms}^{-1}
`\textrm{ms}^{-1}`: \textrm{ms}^{-1}
(in the plot above the `-1` is clearly moved upwards).
---
### Author:  [@gustaphe](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/gustaphe)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2021, 4:06pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/nice-fonts-with-plots-gr-and-latexstrings/60037/7 "2021-04-26T16:06:00Z")
Staring at them like this, I’m becoming more and more convinced they are both the wrong height.
Yes, that seems to be a bug in GR’s LaTeX rendering. Syntactically I still think your version is wrong, but I guess I could implement it in UnitfulLatexify as a workaround.
---
### Author:  [@lmiq](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lmiq)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2021, 4:20pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/nice-fonts-with-plots-gr-and-latexstrings/60037/8 "2021-04-26T16:20:26Z")
In latex they all look the same to me:
thus, it is a rendering issue indeed in GR.
---
### Author:  [@lmiq](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lmiq)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2021, 4:35pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/nice-fonts-with-plots-gr-and-latexstrings/60037/9 "2021-04-26T16:35:22Z")
Anyway, you made me notice that the `default` keyword is properly setting the fonts to all elements (that was not working in some previous version). Thus, the initial example can be made simpler:
```julia
using Plots
using LaTeXStrings
plot_font = "Computer Modern"
default(fontfamily=plot_font,
linewidth=2, framestyle=:box, label=nothing, grid=false)
plot(sort(rand(10)),sort(rand(10)),label="Legend")
plot!(xlabel=L"\textrm{Standard text}(r) / \mathrm{cm^3}")
plot!(ylabel="Same font as everything")
annotate!(0.2,0.8,text("My note",plot_font,12))
savefig("./plot.pdf")
```
---
### Author:  [@gustaphe](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/gustaphe)
#### Post date: [April 26, 2021, 4:51pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/nice-fonts-with-plots-gr-and-latexstrings/60037/10 "2021-04-26T16:51:54Z")
I opened an issue here. It seems like the gull wings are to blame:
[https://github.com/jheinen/GR.jl/issues/402](https://github.com/jheinen/GR.jl/issues/402)
---
### Author:  [@JeffFessler](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/JeffFessler)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2021, 3:53pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/nice-fonts-with-plots-gr-and-latexstrings/60037/11 "2021-05-01T15:53:05Z")
It would be nice if `text` would inherit the default font from `default` so that the last line could be simply
`annotate!(0.2,0.8,text("My note",12))`
---
### Author:  [@rafael.guerra](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/rafael.guerra)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2021, 10:22am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/nice-fonts-with-plots-gr-and-latexstrings/60037/12 "2021-05-03T10:22:19Z")
@lmiq, thanks for this very useful post.
In case it might be of interest, the following example provides some additional formatting options:
```julia
using LaTeXStrings, Printf, Plots; gr()
plot_font = "Computer Modern";
default(fontfamily=plot_font,framestyle=:box, label=nothing, grid=false, tickfontsize=7)
u = 15 # persistent wind speed in m/s (~30 knot)
st0 = "Significant wave height vs persistent wind speed ("
st1 = @sprintf(": u = %i m/s → ", u)
st2 = @sprintf(" = %.1f m", 0.24*u^2/9.8)
plot(title=L"\textbf{%$st0} \mathbf{H_s \approx 0.24 u^2/g} ) \textit{%$st1} {H_s} \textit{%$st2}", titlefont=font(8,plot_font))
plot!(ylims=(0,30))
```
To produce:
---
### Author:  [@jo-fleck](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jo-fleck)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2021, 4:21pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/nice-fonts-with-plots-gr-and-latexstrings/60037/13 "2021-05-23T16:21:03Z")
Thanks @rafael.guerra
This is very useful!
---
### Author:  [@rafael.guerra](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/rafael.guerra)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2021, 12:39pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/nice-fonts-with-plots-gr-and-latexstrings/60037/14 "2021-10-16T12:39:29Z")
This example ` using LaTeXStrings, Printf, Plots; gr()` worked fine about 6 months ago but it doesn’t seem to work anymore.
No problem with the `pgfplotsx()` backend though.
Any clues?
---
### Author:  [@lmiq](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lmiq)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2021, 6:36pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/nice-fonts-with-plots-gr-and-latexstrings/60037/15 "2021-10-16T18:36:09Z")
> [@rafael.guerra](#):
>
> ```julia
> using LaTeXStrings, Printf, Plots; gr()
>
> plot_font = "Computer Modern";
> default(fontfamily=plot_font,framestyle=:box, label=nothing, grid=false, tickfontsize=7)
>
> u = 15 # persistent wind speed in m/s (~30 knot)
> st0 = "Significant wave height vs persistent wind speed ("
> st1 = @sprintf(": u = %i m/s → ", u)
> st2 = @sprintf(" = %.1f m", 0.24*u^2/9.8)
> plot(title=L"\textbf{%$st0} \mathbf{H_s \approx 0.24 u^2/g} ) \textit{%$st1} {H_s} \textit{%$st2}", titlefont=font(8,plot_font))
> plot!(ylims=(0,30))
>
> ```
The problem is with the unicode arrow in
```julia
julia> st1
": u = 15 m/s → "
```
You can replace that with the actual latex symbol, like:
```julia
julia> v = 15
15
julia> plot(rand(10),title=L"\textit{v = %$v m/s \rightarrow}")
```
---
### Author:  [@rafael.guerra](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/rafael.guerra)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2021, 6:46pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/nice-fonts-with-plots-gr-and-latexstrings/60037/16 "2021-10-16T18:46:36Z")
Well done @lmiq for the detective work.
_ **NB:** _ _still a bit annoying and confusing that_ `gr()` _doesn’t consume the unicode symbol of the right arrow anymore (also in text strings spaces need now to be replaced by ~)_
---
### Author:  [@lmiq](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lmiq)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2021, 6:50pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/nice-fonts-with-plots-gr-and-latexstrings/60037/17 "2021-10-16T18:50:00Z")
They have been working on the LaTeX parser recently, leading to some regressions. You may want to open an issue there on GR.jl.
---
### Author:  [@chrisoffner](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/chrisoffner)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2022, 10:43am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/nice-fonts-with-plots-gr-and-latexstrings/60037/18 "2022-02-07T10:43:37Z")
Thank you for this. 🙂 Any idea how I can change the font used by `LatexStrings` to _Palladio_? It’s what I use in my thesis, and I’d like to have the plots match that. Setting the font family in `default()` seems to affect `Plots` only, but not the `LatexStrings` labels.
---
### Author:  [@gustaphe](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/gustaphe)
#### Post date: [February 7, 2022, 11:34am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/nice-fonts-with-plots-gr-and-latexstrings/60037/19 "2022-02-07T11:34:23Z")
This will be difficult to do. Depending on your backend, `Plots` uses `Mathjax` or a homebrew version thereof to render `TeX` strings (it doesn’t actually use the fact that your string is a `LaTeXString`, but rather the fact that `LaTeXString`s include `$$` automatically, so this is a question for `Plots` rather than `LaTeXStrings`).
For the Plotly and PlotlyJS backends, you can use a user-defined config file:
[https://docs.juliaplots.org/latest/backends/#MathJax](https://docs.juliaplots.org/latest/backends/#MathJax)
which I guess could be used for this. but I don’t know MathJax, I saw someone say that the available fonts are limited anyway.
If this was an issue for me I would probably use the `PGFPlots` backend, so you’re actually leaving the rendering to `LaTeX` itself. If the compilation times get too large, you can add a recipe to your makefile to compile those image files to pdf before including them in the document.
---
### Author:  [@gustaphe](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/gustaphe)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2024, 1:43pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/nice-fonts-with-plots-gr-and-latexstrings/60037/20 "2024-07-22T13:43:49Z")
As of today’s GR release, the default height is more reasonable. Only took me three years to get around to it.