Italic Type

Sometimes the term italic is wrongly applied on Oblique fonts (mostly Sans-serif ), when they are merely distorted into a slanted orientation.

Uppercase letters in italic types are usually oblique instead of being true italics.

Swash Capital s are uppercase letters that have flourishes added to them, originally designed to go with Italic typefaces.

Italic type is often used for Emphasis to distinguish or otherwise set off certain words within text.

EXAMPLES

An example of ''normal'' and ''true italics'' text:

set in both Roman and Italic type.]]

The same example, as ''oblique'' text:

ITALICS ARE USED FOR:

Emphasis .

The titles of works that stand by themselves, such as books or newspapers. Works that appear within larger works, such as short stories, poems, or newspaper articles, are not italicized, but merely set off in Quotation Marks .

The names of ships.

Foreign words.

Using a word as an example of a word, rather than for its semantic content: see Use-mention Distinction .

Introducing terms.

Sometimes in novels to indicate a character's thought process.

The latin Binary Nomenclature ''( Genus Species )'', in the Taxonomy of living organisms.

Symbols for Physical Quantities and other Mathematical Variable s.

If something within a run of italics needs to be italicized itself (for example, the name of a ship within a sentence already italicized for emphasis), the type is switched back to non-italicized ( Roman ) type.

In media where italicization is not possible, alternatives are used.

In Typewritten or Handwritten text, Underlining is typically used.

In plain-text Computer Files , including E-mail communication, italicised words are often indicated by surrounding them with Slashes . For example, "I was /really/ annoyed".

HISTORY

The first Italic style typefaces were developed in the 1490s by Aldus Manutius for the Aldine Press . Aldus obtained a patent for the exclusive use of them, although the honour of the invention is more probably due to his typefounder, Franciso De Bologna . The typeface was not used for emphasis as we do today, but rather for its narrow and compact letterforms, which allowed the printing of pocket-sized books.

USE IN WEB PAGES

In HTML , the I element is used to produce italic (or oblique) text. When an author wants to indicate emphasized text, which is often rendered in italics, the EM element should be used instead, because it is more meaningful to user agents that cannot display italics. If the italics are ornamental rather than semantic, then the CSS rule font-style: italic should be used instead of the I element.

USE WITH PARENTHESES

The '' Chicago Manual Of Style '' suggests that to avoid problems such as overlapping and unequally spaced characters, Parentheses and Bracket s surrounding text that begins and ends in italic or oblique type should also be italicized. An exception to this rule applies when only one end of the parenthetical is italicized (in which case Roman Type is preferred).

Information About

Italic Type