changing font series defaults

[schlcht]

Brief outline of the bug

The new font series management seems to make it impossible to change the default series other than, well, through the new font series management. Modifying \bfdefault or \mddefault won't have any effect anymore because the values in \bfseries@rm etc. will always take precedence. Is this really the intended behaviour? I sense some major compatibility issues here.

Secondly, specifying \DeclareFontSeriesDefault without the optional argument won't be effective, either (for the same reason), which actually makes the optional argument mandatory.

Or am I missing something completely?

Minimal example showing the bug

\RequirePackage{latexbug}
\documentclass{article}
\renewcommand\rmdefault{EBGaramond-LF}
\renewcommand\bfdefault{sb}
\DeclareFontSeriesDefault{bf}{sb}
%\DeclareFontSeriesDefault[rm]{bf}{sb} % only this works
\begin{document}
\textbf{\expandafter\meaning\the\font}
\end{document}

Log file (required) and possibly PDF file

test.log

[FrankMittelbach]

Secondly, specifying \DeclareFontSeriesDefault without the optional argument won't be effective, either (for the same reason), which actually makes the optional argument mandatory.

Or am I missing something completely?

no you don't. That's a bug. The logic to work around the fact the CM/LM need bx while more or less any other font needs b is obviously not quite correct, i it doesn't take a change of \bfdefault into account. Technically using \renewcommand\bfdefault{sb} or \DeclareFontSeriesDefault{bf}{sb} (which is the same in other words) is probably most of the time not a good idea as it means that sf and tt also need to support that series, but it should of course work.

So here is a possible patch -- not necessarily the one that goes into the kernel in the end but give it a try:

\makeatletter
\def\init@series@setup{%
  \edef\reserved@a{\bfdefault}%
  \def\reservedb{b}%
 \ifx\reserved@a\reserved@b
  \ifx\bfseries@rm@kernel\bfseries@rm
    \expandafter\in@\expandafter{\rmdefault}{cmr,cmss,cmtt,lcmss,lcmtt,lmr,lmss,lmtt}%
    \ifin@ \else \def\bfseries@rm{b}\fi\fi
  \ifx\bfseries@sf@kernel\bfseries@sf
    \expandafter\in@\expandafter{\sfdefault}{cmr,cmss,cmtt,lcmss,lcmtt,lmr,lmss,lmtt}%
    \ifin@ \else \def\bfseries@sf{b}\fi\fi
  \ifx\bfseries@tt@kernel\bfseries@tt
    \expandafter\in@\expandafter{\ttdefault}{cmr,cmss,cmtt,lcmss,lcmtt,lmr,lmss,lmtt}%
    \ifin@ \else \def\bfseries@tt{b}\fi\fi
 \else
  \ifx\bfseries@rm@kernel\bfseries@rm
    \let\bfseries@rm\reserved@a
  \fi
  \ifx\bfseries@sf@kernel\bfseries@sf
    \let\bfseries@sf\reserved@a
  \fi
  \ifx\bfseries@tt@kernel\bfseries@tt
   \let\bfseries@tt\reserved@a
  \fi
 \fi
 %   
  \expand@font@defaults
  \ifx\famdef@ult\rmdef@ult      \rmfamily
  \else\ifx\famdef@ult\sfdef@ult \sffamily
  \else\ifx\famdef@ult\ttdef@ult \ttfamily
  \fi\fi\fi
}%
\makeatother

\documentclass{article}
\renewcommand\rmdefault{EBGaramond-LF}
\renewcommand\bfdefault{sb}
\DeclareFontSeriesDefault{bf}{sb}  % that is really the same as the line before

%\DeclareFontSeriesDefault[rm]{bf}{sb} % only this works
\begin{document}



\textbf{\expandafter\meaning\the\font}

\sffamily
\textbf{\expandafter\meaning\the\font}  % will fail if sf is CMSS but that's correct

\stop

[schlcht]

Thanks. This would still fail, however, when the change happens inside the document. I'm aware that \DeclareFontSeriesDefault with its camel case looks like it should only be used in the preamble, but it's not actually \@onlypreamble'd. Also, my real-life case was a change of \bfdefault just for the TOC.

[FrankMittelbach]

I guess there is no way to avoid getting some edge cases that are behaving differently when you extend functionality, but maybe the following logic will make old and new work together well enough.

• going forward the setting of \bfdefault directly is deprecated (but remains possible for old documents)
• the default for a meta family (rm/sf/tt) should be set using \DeclareFontSeriesDefault[<meta>]{bf}{...}
• the default for any other font (not one of the meta families) should be set using \DeclareFontSeriesDefault{bf}{...}
• same goes for \mddefault obviously

The processing logic is then:

• when using \DeclareFontSeriesDefault only the part that is set up is being altered
• when using \renewcommand\bfdefault{...} all existing meta family defaults are reset to \bfdefault as well (technically that is going to happen at the next invocation of \bfseries not at the time the \renewcommand is parsed)

Does that make sense or did I overlook a case?

[FrankMittelbach]

I should add that I think it is next to impossible (with reasonable effort) to detect the case that \bfdefault was changed to itself so if that happen I guess no resetting of the meta family defaults will happen.

[FrankMittelbach]

I should add that I think it is next to impossible (with reasonable effort) to detect the case that \bfdefault was changed to itself so if that happen I guess no resetting of the meta family defaults will happen.

That should now also be covered thanks to a good suggestion by @zauguin .

[schlcht]

Thanks, looks good to me.

[FrankMittelbach]

For platex and friends there is an open request to support this in a more structured way:

85b982e#commitcomment-37946221

will think about how to best handle the so move back to in progress.

[FrankMittelbach]

Use new hook management for the hooks in fall release --- so reopen

[FrankMittelbach]

@aminophen The NFSS commands now have hooks using the new hook management scheme --- this will become available with -dev release (III) around 1st of October (the old names should still be supported for now but if would be good to alter external code, as eventually that legacy support should get dropped).

[aminophen]

@FrankMittelbach Thanks --- I will check the new scheme soon.