In addition to Paul Stanley's excellent answer: A seventh possible answer ist to use fonts which feature a large character width for a given point size. In practice, a) one should use anything but Times New Roman b) Palatino is a good choice.

\documentclass{article}% default font size: 10pt \newcommand*{\alphabet}{abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz} \makeatletter \newcommand*{\showalphabetwidth}[2]{% \fontfamily{#1}\selectfont \settowidth{\@tempdima}{\alphabet}% \alphabet~-- width for #2 at 1\@ptsize pt: \the\@tempdima } \makeatother \begin{document} \showalphabetwidth{cmr}{Computer Modern} \showalphabetwidth{ptm}{Times New Roman} \showalphabetwidth{ppl}{Palatino} \end{document} 

In addition to Paul Stanley's excellent answer: A seventh possible approach ist to use fonts which feature a large character width for a given point size. In practice, a) one should use anything but Times New Roman b) Palatino is a good choice.

\documentclass{article}% default font size: 10pt \newcommand*{\alphabet}{abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz} \makeatletter \newcommand*{\showalphabetwidth}[2]{% \fontfamily{#1}\selectfont \settowidth{\@tempdima}{\alphabet}% \alphabet~-- width for #2 at 1\@ptsize pt: \the\@tempdima } \makeatother \begin{document} \showalphabetwidth{cmr}{Computer Modern} \showalphabetwidth{ptm}{Times New Roman} \showalphabetwidth{ppl}{Palatino} \end{document} 

In addition to Paul Stanley's excellent answer: A seventh possible answer ist to use fonts which feature a large character width for a given point size. In practice, a) one should use anything but Times New Roman b) Palatino is a good choice.

\documentclass{article}% default font size: 10pt \newcommand*{\alphabet}{abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz} \newlength{\mylength}   \begin{document}   \settowidth{\mylength}{\alphabet}   \alphabet~-- width for Computer Modern at 10pt: \the\mylength \fontfamily{ptm}\selectfont \settowidth{\mylength}{\alphabet} \alphabet~-- width for Times New Roman at 10pt: \the\mylength \fontfamily{ppl}\selectfont \settowidth{\mylength}{\alphabet} \alphabet~-- width for Palatino at 10pt: \the\mylength \end{document} 

In addition to Paul Stanley's excellent answer: A seventh possible answer ist to use fonts which feature a large character width for a given point size. In practice, a) one should use anything but Times New Roman b) Palatino is a good choice.

\documentclass{article}% default font size: 10pt \newcommand*{\alphabet}{abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz} \makeatletter \newcommand*{\showalphabetwidth}[2]{%  \fontfamily{#1}\selectfont  \settowidth{\@tempdima}{\alphabet}%  \alphabet~-- width for #2 at 1\@ptsize pt: \the\@tempdima } \makeatother \begin{document} \showalphabetwidth{cmr}{Computer Modern} \showalphabetwidth{ptm}{Times New Roman} \showalphabetwidth{ppl}{Palatino} \end{document}