How to Set a LaTeX Table Font to Exactly 10 pt

To set only a table’s contents to exactly 10 pt, use \fontsize{10pt}{12pt}\selectfont immediately before the tabular environment. Put the declaration and table in a group so the font-size change ends with the table.

The second value, 12pt, controls the baseline skip—the distance between lines—not the font size. It is a reasonable starting point for 10 pt text, but you can change it if the rows need more or less vertical space.

Set the font size locally

Here is the basic pattern:

{\fontsize{10pt}{12pt}\selectfont
\begin{tabular}{lr}
Item & Amount \\
Apples & 12 \\
Oranges & 8 \\
\end{tabular}
}

The braces create a local group. The font declaration applies inside it and reverts afterward. \selectfont is required: \fontsize records the requested size and baseline skip, while \selectfont applies them.

Complete example

This example sets the table cells to 10 pt in a document whose main text is 12 pt. The caption stays at the document’s normal caption size because it is outside the group.

\documentclass[12pt]{article}

\begin{document}

The surrounding paragraph uses the document's normal font size.

\begin{table}[ht]
\centering
\caption{A table with 10 pt contents}
\label{tab:ten-point}
{\fontsize{10pt}{12pt}\selectfont
\begin{tabular}{lr}
\hline
Item & Amount \\
\hline
Apples & 12 \\
Oranges & 8 \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
}
\end{table}

The surrounding paragraph is back to its normal font size.

\end{document}

The size declaration affects the table contents, not the floating table environment itself. If you want the caption to use 10 pt as well, configure its font separately; simply placing \caption inside the same group may not suffice, because document classes can apply their own caption font. Caption formatting can also be controlled separately with packages such as caption.

When \small is enough

For a quick, class-relative adjustment, write \small before the table and group it in the same way:

{\small
\begin{tabular}{lr}
Item & Amount \\
Apples & 12 \\
\end{tabular}
}

This is convenient when you want text smaller than the surrounding text, but it does not guarantee an exact 10 pt size. In standard document classes, the size chosen by \small depends on the class’s base size: for example, in the standard 12 pt article class, \small is about 10.95 pt. Use \fontsize when the exact nominal size matters.

Common mistakes

• Using \fontsize without \selectfont: the requested size is not applied until \selectfont is issued.
• Forgetting the group: a declaration outside a group can change the size of material after the table as well.
• Assuming \small means 10 pt: it is relative to the class, and may not be exactly 10 pt.
• Confusing font size with row spacing: the first \fontsize argument sets the font size; the second sets the baseline skip. To adjust row height independently, you can also use a table-specific spacing setting such as \arraystretch.
• Scaling the whole table to change text size: commands such as \resizebox scale the table as a graphic, including its rules and spacing. A local font declaration is usually preferable when the goal is simply smaller text.