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Font sizes

The following standard type size commands are supported by LaTeX. The table shows the command name and the corresponding actual font size used (in points) with the ‘10pt’, ‘11pt’, and ‘12pt’ document size options, respectively (see Document class options).

Command	10pt	11pt	12pt
\tiny	5	6	6
\scriptsize	7	8	8
\footnotesize	8	9	10
\small	9	10	10.95
\normalsize (default)	10	10.95	12
\large	12	12	14.4
\Large	14.4	14.4	17.28
\LARGE	17.28	17.28	20.74
\huge	20.74	20.74	24.88
\Huge	24.88	24.88	24.88

The commands are listed here in declaration (not environment) form, since that is how they are typically used. For example.

\begin{quotation} \small
  The Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao.
\end{quotation}

Here, the scope of the \small lasts until the end of the quotation environment. It would also end at the next type style command or the end of the current group, so you could enclose it in curly braces {\small This text is typeset in the small font.}.

An environment form of each of these commands is also defined; for instance, \begin{tiny}...\end{tiny}. However, in practice this form can easily lead to unwanted spaces at the beginning and/or end of the environment without careful consideration, so it’s generally less error-prone to stick to the declaration form.

(Aside: Technically, due to the way LaTeX defines \begin and \end, nearly every command that does not take an argument technically has an environment form. But in almost all cases, it would only cause confusion to use it. The reason for mentioning the environment form of the font size declarations specifically is that this particular use is not rare.)