It's more accurate to say they were variable fonts. The Computer Modern used by modern LaTeX distributions was converted from METAFONT to Type 1 in 1992. In the

It's more accurate to say they were variable fonts. The Computer Modern used by modern LaTeX distributions was converted from METAFONT to Type 1 in 1992. In the process, specific parameter values had to be chosen - in my opinion, chosen badly, so as to make modern Computer Modern very difficult to read on screen at small sizes because it's too darn light. :( Reasonable replacements included in most LaTeX distributions include the XCharter or libertine packages for text fonts; eulervm or newtxmath for math fonts; or mathpazo for both.