Tips on Writing a Thesis in LaTeX

About bitmap fonts

After you have produced an output PDF file, make sure you are working with vector fonts (see figure, top; pdf example), which are contrary to the bitmap ones (figure, bottom; pdf example). The former are displayed much better on the screen, even though the printing quality of both may be similar.

A straightforward way to check which fonts you are using is to magnify the text up to high level (~1000%) and look how individual characters are displayed. Alternatively, one can check which font types contains the document: after opening the document in Acrobat (or Foxit) reader, go to "File" > “Document properties” > “Fonts” tab (you may also press ctrl+d). You should check the absence of Type 3 (bitmap) fonts in the opened font list. If your output PDF (or only some typefaces in it) looks “fuzzy” :), it is a sure sign your PDF uses bitmap fonts. In some cases bitmap fonts may appear in the document font list due to embedding of other objects (like figures) into the final PDF. A possibility to identify such object is to simply recompile the document with consequent exclusion of input files using, for example, \includeonly command.

Unfortunately, I cannot provide a 100%-working solution to get rid of the bitmap fonts, because according to my experience the solutions I have found worked on some LaTeX setups, while did not on others. Hence, the only advice I could give is to use gooooogle and find out solution suitable for your setup (a good starting point can be found here).