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}

![enter image description here][1]


 [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/jmBAh.jpg