A few years ago, the `lmodern` package was a good way to have high quality fonts by simply adding :

```
\usepackage{lmodern}

```

Nowadays, `lmodern` seems less popular. I'm wondering if it is because LaTeX default fonts received some improvements which make `lmodern` useless? Or because the package is abandoned? It hard to see if the package is still developed ([a search on CTAN about `lmodern`](http://www.ctan.org/search.html?phrase=lmodern&ext=true&PORTAL=on&PKG=on&AUTHORS=on&TOPICS=on&max=16) does not return anything) and `texdoc lmodern` is not helpful...

So :

1. Is it still useful to load the `lmodern` package?
2. What are the effects/advantages of this package compared to normal (default) CM fonts?