View source for Italic type

{{Short description|Font style with cursive typeface and slanted design}}
{{About|printing|the handwriting style|Italic script}}
{{Redirect|Italics|the similar word ''Italian''|Italian (disambiguation)|other uses|Italic (disambiguation)}}
{{Redirect-distinguish|Italicization|Italianization}}
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[[File:Page from the edition of Virgil printed by Aldus Manutius in 1501 (BnF, Réserve des livres rares, RES P-YC-1265).jpg|thumb|[[Aldus Manutius]]' italic, in a 1501 edition of [[Virgil]]. Italic is only used for the lower case and not for capitals.<ref name="Manutius Pioneers of Print">{{cite web|title=Aldus Manutius|url=http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/firstimpressions/Pioneers-of-Print/Aldus-Manutius/|website=Pioneers of Print|publisher=[[University of Manchester]]|access-date=6 April 2017}}</ref>]]

In [[typography]], '''italic type''' is a [[cursive]] [[font]] based on a stylised form of calligraphic [[handwriting]].<ref name="Clayton2013">{{cite book|author=Ewan Clayton|title=The Golden Thread: The Story of Writing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0fStAAAAQBAJ&pg=PT104|date=5 September 2013|publisher=Atlantic Books|isbn=978-1-78239-034-3|pages=104–6}}</ref><ref name="Gaultney Italics">{{cite web |last1=Gaultney |first1=Victor |title=Designing Italics: Approaches to the design of contemporary secondary text typefaces (PhD thesis) |url=https://gaultney.org/jvgtype/italics/designing-italics/ |website=Victor Gaultney |publisher=[[University of Reading]] |access-date=30 September 2021}}</ref><ref name="Hoefler Italics Examined">{{cite web|last1=Hoefler|first1=Jonathan|author-link=Jonathan Hoefler|title=Italics Examined|url=http://www.typography.com/blog/italics-examined/|publisher=[[Hoefler & Co.]]|access-date=10 February 2017}}</ref> Along with [[blackletter]] and [[roman type]], it served as one of the major typefaces in the [[history of Western typography]].

Owing to the influence from [[calligraphy]], italics normally slant slightly to the right, ''like so''. Different [[glyph]] shapes from roman type are usually used{{snd}}another influence from calligraphy{{snd}}and upper-case letters may have [[Swash (typography)|swashes]], flourishes inspired by ornate calligraphy.

Historically, italics were a distinct style of type used entirely separately from [[roman type]], but they have come to be used in conjunction&mdash;most fonts now come with a roman type and an [[oblique type|oblique]] version (generally called "italic" though often not true italics). In this usage, italics are a way to emphasise key points in a printed text, to identify many types of creative works, to cite foreign words or phrases, or, when quoting a speaker, a way to show which words they stressed. One manual of English usage described italics as "the print equivalent of [[Underline|underlining]]"; in other words, underscore in a manuscript directs a typesetter to use italic.<ref>{{Citation |title= Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation|last= Truss|first= Lynne|year= 2004|publisher= Gotham Books|location= New York|isbn= 978-1-59240-087-4|page=146}}</ref>

In fonts which do not have true italics, oblique type may be used instead. The difference between true italics and oblique type is that true italics have some letterforms different from the roman type, but in oblique type letters are just slanted without changing the roman type form.

The name comes from the fact that calligraphy-inspired [[typeface]]s were first designed in [[Italy]], to replace documents traditionally written in a handwriting style called [[chancery hand]]. [[Aldus Manutius]] and [[Ludovico Arrighi]] (both between the 15th and 16th centuries) were the main type designers involved in this process at the time.

==History==
[[File:Niccolo de Niccoli italic handwriting.jpg|thumb|left|Sample of [[Niccolò de' Niccoli|Niccoli's]] cursive script, which developed into Italic type.]]
[[File:Epistole di Santa Caterina 1500 - BEIC 1983402.jpg|thumb|[[Catherine of Siena]], ''Epistole'' ("Letters"), published in Venice by [[Aldo Manuzio]] in September 1500:<ref name="Bühler Manutius">{{cite journal |last1=Bühler |first1=Curt |title=False Information in the Colophons of Incunabula |journal=[[Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society]] |date=1970 |volume=114 |issue=5 |pages=405 |isbn=9781422371374 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qEwLAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA405 |access-date=8 June 2020 |quote=Manutius dated his edition...as 15 September 1500, but included in the volume is a letter...with date of September 19.}}</ref> illustrated table in which appear the first words ever printed in italics: ''iesus'', inside the heart in the left hand and ''iesu dolce iesu amore'' inside the book in the right hand.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://exhibitions.library.columbia.edu/exhibits/show/type_to_print/roman/catherine|title= Type to Print: The Book & The Type Specimen Book - Saint Catherine |website=Columbia University Libraries Online Exhibitions |access-date=2018-12-18}}</ref>]]
[[File:La Operina Arrighi 0039.jpg|thumb|A page from La Operina by [[Ludovico Vicentino degli Arrighi]], showing early "chancery italic" typeface]]
Italic type was first used by printer and humanist [[Aldus Manutius]] and his [[Aldine Press|press in Venice]] in 1500.<ref name="Vervliet2008">{{cite book|author=Hendrik D. L. Vervliet|title=The Palaeotypography of the French Renaissance: Selected Papers on Sixteenth-century Typefaces|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6sidSDlif48C&pg=PA287|year=2008|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-16982-1|pages=287–319}}</ref>

Manutius intended his italic type to be used not for emphasis but for the text of small, easily carried editions of popular books (often poetry), replicating the style of handwritten manuscripts of the period. The choice of using italic type, rather than the [[roman type]] in general use at the time, was apparently made to suggest informality in editions designed for leisure reading.{{efn|It has been suggested that his choice to publish such small, cheap editions was the result of a recession beginning in 1500, the result of war with the Ottoman Empire.}} Manutius' italic type was cut by his [[punchcutter]] [[Francesco Griffo]] (who later, following a dispute with Manutius, claimed to have conceived it). It replicated handwriting of the period following from the style of [[Niccolò de' Niccoli]], possibly even Manutius' own.<ref name="OUP Bibliography">{{cite book|author=Oxford University Press|title=Aldo Manuzio (Aldus Manutius): Oxford Bibliographies Online Research Guide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1cGVJvx9bFEC&pg=PA10|date=1 June 2010|publisher=Oxford University Press, USA|isbn=978-0-19-980945-5|pages=10–11}}</ref><ref>[[Berthold Ullman|Berthold Louis Ullman]], ''The origin and development of humanistic script,'' Rome, 1960, p. 77</ref>

The first use in a complete volume was a 1501 edition of [[Virgil]] dedicated to Italy, although it had been briefly used in the frontispiece of a 1500 edition of [[Catherine of Siena]]'s letters.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://exhibitions.cul.columbia.edu/exhibits/show/type_to_print/roman/catherine|title=Roman vs Italic|work=Type to Print: The Book & The Type Specimen Book|publisher=Columbia University Libraries|access-date=27 October 2014}}</ref> In 1501, Aldus wrote to his friend Scipio:

{{blockquote|We have printed, and are now publishing, the [[Satires of Juvenal|Satires of Juvenal and Persius]] in a very small format, so that they may more conveniently be held in the hand and learned by heart (not to speak of being read) by everyone.}}

Manutius' italic was different in some ways from modern italics, being conceived for the specific use of replicating the layout of contemporary calligraphers like Pomponio Leto and [[Bartolomeo Sanvito]]. The capital letters were upright capitals on the model of [[Roman square capitals]], shorter than the ascending lower-case italic letters, and were used at the start of each line followed by a clear space before the first lower-case letter.<ref name="The design and spread of Froben's early Italics">{{cite web|last1=Kaufmann|first1=Ueli|title=The design and spread of Froben's early Italics|url=http://typefacedesign.net/dissertations/year/selected/the-design-and-spread-of-frobens-early-italics/|website=Department of Typography & Graphic Communication|publisher=University of Reading|access-date=5 April 2017|date=2015-10-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161102103305/http://typefacedesign.net/dissertations/year/selected/the-design-and-spread-of-frobens-early-italics/|archive-date=2016-11-02}}</ref> While modern italics are often more condensed than [[roman type]]s, historian [[Harry Carter (typographer)|Harry Carter]] describes Manutius' italic as about the same width as roman type.<ref name="A View of Early Typography">{{cite book|last1=Carter|first1=Harry|title=A View of Early Typography|url=https://archive.org/details/viewofearlytypog0000cart|url-access=registration|date=1969|pages=[https://archive.org/details/viewofearlytypog0000cart/page/117 117–126]|publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-19-818137-8|quote=If Aldus hoped, as it is commonly said that he did, but he never said, that cursive letterforms would save space, he must have been disappointed by the result: a Roman type on the same body gets in just as much. It is a beautiful and legible typeface.}}</ref> To replicate handwriting, Griffo cut at least sixty-five tied letters ([[Typographic ligature|ligatures]]) in the Aldine Dante and Virgil of 1501.<ref name="The design and spread of Froben's early Italics" /> Italic typefaces of the following century used varying but reduced numbers of ligatures.<ref name="The design and spread of Froben's early Italics" />

Italic type rapidly became very popular and was widely (and inaccurately) imitated. The [[Venetian Senate]] gave Aldus exclusive right to its use, a patent confirmed by three successive [[Pope]]s, but it was widely counterfeited as early as 1502.<ref name=Updike>{{citation |first=D.B. |last=Updike |title=Printing Types: Their History, Form and Use |publisher=Harvard University |year=1927}}</ref> Griffo, who had left Venice in a business dispute, cut a version for printer [[Soncino family (printers)|Girolamo "Gershom" Soncino]], and other copies appeared in Italy and in [[Lyons]]. The Italians called the character Aldino, while others called it Italic. Italics spread rapidly; historian [[H. D. L. Vervliet]] dates the first production of italics in Paris to 1512.<ref name="Vervliet2008" /><ref name="The design and spread of Froben's early Italics" /> Some printers of Northern Europe used home-made supplements to add characters not used in Italian, or mated it to alternative capitals, including Gothic ones.<ref name="Vervliet2008" /><ref name="The design and spread of Froben's early Italics" /><ref>{{cite web |last1=Nakano |first1=Shotaro |title=Reviving Unknown 16th-century Dutch Type: Shotaro Nakano, ATypI 2023 Paris |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxhe8l2OLn4 |website=YouTube |date=19 November 2023 |publisher=[[ATypI]] |access-date=11 January 2024 |quote=A type cut by an unknown punchcutter whose matrix is numbered MA174 in an inventory of Plantin Moretus Museum…is not completely italic but has traces of blackletter, which must be rare in the history of type although there are many roman types like that.}}</ref>

[[File:Cancelleresca_Bastarda_Magnificat_detail_Stanbrook.jpg|thumb|right|[[Jan van Krimpen]]'s ''Cancelleresca Bastarda'', a twentieth-century revival of the chancery italic style.]]
Besides imitations of Griffo's italic and its derivatives, a second wave appeared of [[Cancelleresca corsiva|"chancery" italics]], most popular in Italy, which Vervliet describes as being based on "a more deliberate and formal handwriting [with] longer ascenders and descenders, sometimes with curved or bulbous terminals, and [often] only available in the bigger sizes."<ref name="Vervliet2008" /><ref name="Morison Chancery">{{cite book|last1=Morison|first1=Stanley|last2=Johnson|first2=Alfred|editor1-last=McKitterick|editor1-first=David John|title=Selected essays on the history of letter-forms in manuscript and print|date=2009|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-18316-1|pages=30–45|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-G2tQVnPiCAC&pg=PA30|access-date=28 December 2015|chapter=3: The Chancery Types of Italy and France}}</ref><ref name="A Tally of Types">{{cite book|last1=Morison|first1=Stanley|author-link=Stanley Morison|title=A Tally of Types|title-link=A Tally of Types|date=1973|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|pages=[https://archive.org/details/tallyoftypes0000mori/page/41 41–60]|isbn=978-0-521-09786-4}}</ref> Chancery italics were introduced around 1524 by Arrighi, a calligrapher and author of a calligraphy textbook who began a career as a printer in Rome, and also by [[Giovanni Antonio Tagliente]] of Venice, with imitations rapidly appearing in France by 1528.<ref name="A View of Early Typography" /> Chancery italics faded as a style over the course of the sixteenth century, although revivals were made beginning in the twentieth century.{{efn|Notable revivals include [[Bembo|Bembo Narrow Italic]], [[Centaur (typeface)|Centaur Italic or Arrighi]], [[Poetica (typeface)|Poetica]] and [[Requiem (typeface)|Requiem]].<ref name="Requiem Hoefler">{{cite web|last1=Hoefler|first1=Jonathan|title=Requiem|url=https://www.typography.com/fonts/requiem/overview/|publisher=[[Hoefler & Frere-Jones]]|access-date=6 April 2017}}</ref><ref name="auto">{{cite web|title=Fairbank|url=http://www.fonts.com/font/monotype/fairbank|publisher=Monotype|access-date=30 June 2015}}</ref><ref name="auto1">{{cite web|title=Fairbank|url=https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/mti/fairbank-mt/|website=MyFonts|publisher=Monotype}}</ref><ref name="Fairbanks Italic specimen">{{cite web|title=Fairbanks Italic specimen |url=http://typophile.com/files/fairbank%20specimen.pdf |publisher=Monotype |access-date=14 May 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160611110402/http://typophile.com/files/fairbank%20specimen.pdf |archive-date=11 June 2016 }}</ref><ref name="Alfred Fairbank Klingspor">{{cite web|title=Alfred Fairbank|url=http://www.klingspor-museum.de/KlingsporKuenstler/Schriftdesigner/Fairbank/AFairbank.pdf|publisher=[[Klingspor Museum]]|access-date=14 May 2016}}</ref><ref name="Poetica">{{cite web|title=Poetica|url=https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/adobe/poetica/|website=MyFonts|publisher=Adobe Systems|access-date=6 April 2017}}</ref>}} Chancery italics may have backward-pointing serifs or round terminals pointing forwards on the ascenders.<ref name="Morison Chancery" />

Italic capitals with a slope were introduced in the sixteenth century. The first printer known to have used them was Johann or Johannes Singriener in Vienna in 1524, and the practice spread to Germany, France and Belgium.<ref name="Vervliet2008" /><ref name="A Chronology of Printing">{{cite book|last1=Clair|first1=Colin|title=A Chronology of Printing|url=https://archive.org/details/chronologyofprin00clai|url-access=registration|date=1969|page=[https://archive.org/details/chronologyofprin00clai/page/43 43]|publisher=New York, Praeger}}</ref> Particularly influential in the switch to sloped capitals as a general practice was [[Robert Granjon]], a prolific and extremely precise French punchcutter particularly renowned for his skill in cutting italics.<ref name="Vervliet2008" /> Vervliet comments that among punchcutters in France "the main name associated with the change is Granjon's."<ref name="Vervliet2008" />

The evolution of use of italic to show emphasis happened in the sixteenth century and was a clear norm by the seventeenth. The trend of presenting types as matching in typefounders' specimens developed also over this period.<ref name="Lane JPHS">{{cite journal|last1=Lane|first1=John|title=The Types of Nicholas Kis|journal=Journal of the Printing Historical Society|date=1983|pages=47–75}}</ref> Italics developed stylistically over the following centuries, tracking changing tastes in calligraphy and type design.<ref name="The Evolution of the Modern-Face Roman">{{cite journal|last1=Johnson|first1=Alfred F.|author-link1=Alfred F. Johnson|title=The Evolution of the Modern-Face Roman|journal=The Library|date=1930|volume=s4-XI|issue=3|pages=353–377|doi=10.1093/library/s4-XI.3.353}}</ref><ref name="The Baskerville Punches 1750–1950">{{cite journal|last1=Dreyfus|first1=John|author-link1=John Dreyfus|title=The Baskerville Punches 1750–1950|journal=The Library|date=1950|volume=s5-V|issue=1|pages=26–48|doi=10.1093/library/s5-V.1.26}}</ref><ref name="Clayton2014">{{cite book|author=Ewan Clayton|title=The Golden Thread: A History of Writing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=btw-AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA205|date=11 February 2014|publisher=Counterpoint LLC|isbn=978-1-61902-242-3|pages=205–210}}{{Dead link|date=May 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> One major development that slowly became popular from the end of the seventeenth century was a switch to an open form ''h'' matching the ''n'', a development seen in the ''[[Romain du roi]]'' type of the 1690s, replacing the folded, closed-form ''h'' of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century italics, and sometimes simplification of the entrance stroke.<ref name="Type Designs of the Past and Present, Part 3">{{cite journal|last1=Morison|first1=Stanley|title=Type Designs of the Past and Present, Part 3|journal=PM|date=1937|pages=17–81|url=http://magazines.iaddb.org/issue/PM/1937-11-01/edition/4-3/page/19|access-date=4 June 2017|archive-date=4 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170904064848/http://magazines.iaddb.org/issue/PM/1937-11-01/edition/4-3/page/19|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Mosley times italic">{{cite web|last1=Mosley|first1=James|title=Comments on Typophile thread|url=http://www.typophile.com/node/70542|access-date=27 March 2017|quote=One of the distinctive things about French calligraphy of [the 1680s] is that the lead-in stroke of letters like i, m, n and so on have flat, rather 'roman', serifs, making them look a bit like a [[Oblique type|'sloped roman']]…Fournier used it fifty years later in his 'new style' italics, and later so did Firmin Didot. And that French flat serif also turns up in…the italic to [[Times New Roman]].|archive-date=27 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170327171149/http://www.typophile.com/node/70542|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Examples==
{{original research|section|date=December 2017}}
True italic styles are traditionally somewhat narrower than roman fonts. Here is an example of ''normal ([[Roman type|roman]])'' and ''true italics'' text:

[[Image:Garamond Roman Italic.svg|thumb|400px|center|Example text set in both [[Roman type|roman]] and italic type]]

In ''[[Oblique type|oblique]]'' text, the same type is used as in normal type, but slanted to the right:

[[Image:Oblique type example.svg|thumb|400px|center|The same example text set in [[oblique type]] ]]

==Usage==
[[Image:emphasis-typography-outline.svg|frame|right|A common view of when to use italics and bold text. An additional option for emphasis is to use [[small capitals]] for a word or name to stand out.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Butterick|first1=Matthew|title=Bold or italics?|url=http://practicaltypography.com/bold-or-italic.html|website=Practical Typography|access-date=29 July 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Butterick|first1=Matthew|title=Small caps|url=http://practicaltypography.com/small-caps.html|website=Practical Typography|access-date=29 July 2015}}</ref>]]

* [[Emphasis (typography)|Emphasis]]: "Smith wasn't the {{em|only}} guilty party, it's true". This often corresponds with [[Stress (linguistics)#Prosodic stress|stress]] in speech.
* The titles of works that stand by themselves, such as books (including those within a larger series), [[album]]s, [[painting]]s, [[play (theatre)|plays]], [[television show]]s, [[movies]], and [[Periodical literature|periodicals]]: "He wrote his thesis on ''The Scarlet Letter''". Works that appear within larger works, such as short stories, poems, newspaper articles, songs, and television episodes are not italicised, but merely set off in [[quotation marks]]. When italics are unavailable, such as on a typewriter or websites that do not support formatting, an underscore or quotes are often used instead.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dailywritingtips.com/formatting-book-titles-in-the-digital-age|title=Formatting Book Titles in the Digital Age|website=dailywritingtips.com|date=18 August 2014 }}</ref>
* The names of ships: "The ''Queen Mary'' sailed last night."
* Foreign words, including the Latin [[binomial nomenclature]] in the taxonomy of living organisms: "A splendid ''[[coq au vin]]'' was served"; "''Homo sapiens''".
* The names of [[newspapers]] and [[magazines]]: "My favorite magazine is ''[[Psychology Today]]'', and my favorite newspaper is the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]''."
* Mentioning a word as an example of a word rather than for its semantic content (see [[use–mention distinction]]): "The word ''the'' is an article".
** Using a letter or number mentioned as itself:
*** John was annoyed; they had forgotten the ''h'' in his name once again.
*** When she saw her name beside the ''1'' on the rankings, she finally had proof that she was the best.
* Introducing or defining terms, especially technical terms or those used in an unusual or different way:<ref>{{citation|url=http://www1.umn.edu/urelate/style/italics.html |title=University of Minnesota Style Manual |date=18 July 2007 |access-date=22 October 2009 |publisher=[[University of Minnesota]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100324114334/http://www1.umn.edu/urelate/style/italics.html |archive-date=24 March 2010 }}</ref> "Freudian psychology is based on the ''ego'', the ''super-ego'', and the ''id''."; "An ''even'' number is one that is a multiple of 2."
* Sometimes in novels to indicate a character's thought process: "''This can't be happening'', thought Mary."
* Italics are used in the [[King James Version]] to {{em|de-emphasise}} words "that have no equivalent in the original text but that are necessary in English":<ref>{{cite book|last1=Norton|first1=David|title=A Textual History of the King James Bible|date=2005|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|page=162|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W3oVRK4I7UsC&pg=PA162|access-date=18 October 2016|isbn=9780521771009}}</ref> "And God saw the light, that ''it was'' good".<ref>{{Bibleverse|Genesis|1:4|KJV}}</ref>
* [[Algebra]]ic symbols (constants and variables) are conventionally typeset in italics: "The solution is ''n''&nbsp;=&nbsp;2."
* Symbols for [[physical quantity|physical quantities]] and [[mathematical constant]]s: "The speed of light, ''c'', is approximately equal to 3.00×10<sup>8</sup>&nbsp;m/s."<ref>{{citation |first1=I. M. |last1=Mills |first2=W. V. |last2=Metanomski |url=http://iupac.org/fileadmin/user_upload/about/committee/italic-roman_dec99.pdf |title=On the use of italic and roman fonts for symbols in scientific text |publisher=[[IUPAC]] Interdivisional Committee on Nomenclature and Symbols |date=December 1999 |access-date=9 November 2012 }}.  This document was [https://dx.doi.org/10.1515/ci-2014-0529 slightly revised in 2007]* and full text included in the [https://iupac.org/what-we-do/recommendations/guidelines-for-drafting-reports/#use-of-italic-and-roman-fonts-for-symbols-in-scientific-text Guidelines For Drafting IUPAC Technical Reports And Recommendations] and also in the [http://www.iupac.org/home/publications/technical-reports/guidelines-for-drafting-reports/references.html#c315 3rd edition of the IUPAC Green Book] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180919062717/http://www.iupac.org/home/publications/technical-reports/guidelines-for-drafting-reports/references.html#c315 |date=19 September 2018 }}. *Refer to Chemistry International. Volume 36, Issue 5, Pages 23–24, ISSN (Online) 1365-2192, ISSN (Print) 0193-6484, DOI: 10.1515/ci-2014-0529, September 2014</ref><ref>See also [http://www.gruppodelcolore.it/Docs/ISO_NIST_typefaces.pdf Typefaces for Symbols in Scientific Manuscripts] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180919060458/http://www.gruppodelcolore.it/Docs/ISO_NIST_typefaces.pdf |date=19 September 2018 }}, NIST, January 1998.  This cites the family of [[ISO standards]] 31-0:1992 to 31-13:1992.</ref><ref>"[http://physics.nist.gov/Pubs/SP811/sec10.html More on Printing and Using Symbols and Numbers in Scientific and Technical Documents] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070629210131/http://physics.nist.gov/Pubs/SP811/sec10.html |date=29 June 2007 }}".  Chapter 10 of NIST Special Publication 811 (SP 811):  [http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/pdf/sp811.pdf Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SI)]. 2008 Edition, by Ambler Thompson and Barry N. Taylor.  National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, US.  March 2008.  76 pages.  This cites the [[ISO standards]] 31-0:1992 and 31-11:1992, but notes "Currently ISO 31 is being revised <nowiki>[...]</nowiki>. The revised joint standards ISO/IEC 80000-1—ISO/IEC 80000-15 will supersede ISO 31-0:1992—ISO 31-13".</ref>
* In biology, [[gene]] names (for example, [[lac operon|''lacZ'']]) are written in italics whereas protein names are written in roman type (e.g. [[β-galactosidase]], which the ''lacZ'' gene codes for).<ref name="The NCBI Style Guide: Style Points and Conventions">{{cite web|title=The NCBI Style Guide: Style Points and Conventions|url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK995/#A294|publisher=[[National Center for Biotechnology Information]]|access-date=28 April 2016}}</ref><ref name="Guidelines for Formatting Gene and Protein Names">{{cite web|title=Guidelines for Formatting Gene and Protein Names|url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK995/#A294|publisher=BioScience Writers|access-date=28 April 2016}}</ref>
* Italics are frequently used in [[comics]]. A [[letterer]] may opt to use italic text for a variety of situations, such as [[internal monologue]]s, captions, words from other languages, and text rendered inside certain types of [[speech balloon]]s (such as thought balloons). Bolded words are commonly also rendered in italic.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blambot.com/pages/comic-book-grammar-tradition|title=Comic Book Grammar & Tradition|website=Blambot Comic Book Fonts|accessdate=14 March 2022}}</ref>
* In older English usage, writers italicised words much more freely, for emphasis, for instance [[John Donne]]:<ref>''[[Meditation XVII]]'' (1624)</ref>
*:No man is an ''Iland'', intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the ''Continent'', a part of the ''maine''; if a ''Clod'' bee washed away by the ''Sea'', ''Europe'' is the lesse, as well as if a ''Promontorie'' were ...
* In numbering [[Act of Parliament (United Kingdom)|UK Acts of Parliament]] within a given year (prior to 1963, a given [[parliamentary session|session]]), [[Local and personal acts of Parliament (United Kingdom)#Personal acts|personal act]]s have italic Arabic numerals, whereas [[Act of Parliament (United Kingdom)#Public general acts|public general act]]s have plain Arabic numerals and [[Local and personal acts of Parliament (United Kingdom)#Local acts|local act]]s have lowercase Roman numerals.<ref>{{cite web |title=Introduction to Private and Personal Acts |url=https://www.legislation.gov.uk/changes/chron-tables/private/intro#6ListingNumberingandAnnotationsofActs |website=[[legislation.gov.uk]] |access-date=22 July 2024 |page=6. Listing, Numbering and Annotations of Acts}}</ref>

==Oblique type compared to italics==
[[File:Sans-serif italics.png|thumb|Three sans-serif italics. [[News Gothic]], a 1908 [[Sans-serif#Grotesque|grotesque]] design, has an [[oblique type|oblique]] 'italic', like many designs of the period. Gothic Italic no. 124, an 1890s grotesque, has a crisp true italic resembling [[Didone (typography)|Didone]] serif families of the period.<ref name="Specimens of type, borders, ornaments, brass rules and cuts, etc. : catalogue of printing machinery and materials, wood goods, etc">{{cite book|title=Specimens of type, borders, ornaments, brass rules and cuts, etc. : catalogue of printing machinery and materials, wood goods, etc|page=[https://archive.org/details/specimensoftypeb00amer/page/340 340]|date=1897|publisher=American Type Founders Company|url=https://archive.org/details/specimensoftypeb00amer|access-date=17 August 2015}}</ref> [[Seravek]], a modern humanist family, has a more informal italic in the style of handwriting.]]
[[Oblique type]] (or slanted roman, sloped roman) is type that is slanted, but lacking cursive letterforms, with features like a non-descending ''f'' and double-storey ''a'', unlike "true italics".  Many [[sans-serif]] typefaces use oblique designs (sometimes called "sloped roman" styles) instead of italic ones; some have both italic and oblique variants. Type designers have described oblique type as less organic and calligraphic than italics, which in some situations may be preferred.<ref name=Majoor>{{cite web|last1=Majoor|first1=Martin|title=Inclined to be dull|url=http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/inclined-to-be-dull|website=Eye magazine|access-date=20 June 2015}}</ref> Contemporary type designer [[Jeremy Tankard]] stated that he had avoided a true italic ''a'' and ''e'' in his sans-serif [[Bliss (typeface)|Bliss]] due to finding them "too soft", while [[Jonathan Hoefler|Hoefler]] and [[Tobias Frere-Jones|Frere-Jones]] have described obliques as more "keen and insistent" than true italics.<ref name="Bliss">{{cite web|last1=Tankard|first1=Jeremy|title=Bliss|url=http://typography.net/fontfamilies/view/27|publisher=Jeremy Tankard Typography|access-date=16 December 2016}}</ref><ref name="Whitney">{{cite web|last1=Frere-Jones|first1=Tobias|last2=Hoefler|first2=Jonathan|title=Whitney|url=http://www.typography.com/fonts/whitney/features/whitney-stylistic-sets|publisher=[[Hoefler & Frere-Jones]]|access-date=16 December 2016}}</ref> [[Adrian Frutiger]] has described obliques as more appropriate to the aesthetic of sans-serifs than italics.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Frutiger|first1=Adrian|title=Typefaces: The Complete Works|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3038212607|page=260|edition=2nd|date=2014-05-08}}</ref> In contrast, [[Martin Majoor]] has argued that obliques do not contrast enough from the regular style.<ref name="Majoor My Type Design Philosophy">{{cite web|last1=Majoor|first1=Martin|author-link=Martin Majoor|title=My Type Design Philosophy|url=http://www.typotheque.com/articles/my_type_design_philosophy|website=Typotheque|date=29 November 2004 |access-date=12 November 2015}}</ref>

Almost all modern serif fonts have true italic designs. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a number of type foundries such as [[American Type Founders]] and [[Genzsch & Heyse, A.G.|Genzsch & Heyse]] offered serif typefaces with oblique rather than italic designs, especially display typefaces but these designs (such as Genzsch Antiqua) have mostly disappeared.<ref name="Tracy2003">{{cite book|author=Walter Tracy|title=Letters of Credit: A View of Type Design|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y8NssjbqNcsC&pg=PA61|date=January 2003|publisher=D.R. Godine|isbn=978-1-56792-240-0|pages=61–4}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Typophile discussion|url=http://typophile.com/node/88224|website=Typophile|access-date=8 November 2014|archive-date=8 November 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141108190333/http://typophile.com/node/88224|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Devroye|first1=Luc|title=Friedrich Bauer|url=http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-33257.html|website=Type Design Information|access-date=8 November 2014}}</ref> An exception is American Type Founders' [[Bookman (typeface)|Bookman]], offered in some releases with the oblique of its metal type version.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Simonson|first1=Mark|title=Bookmania|url=http://www.marksimonson.com/fonts/view/bookmania|access-date=23 September 2014}}</ref> An unusual example of an oblique font from the inter-war period is the display face [[Koch Antiqua]]. With a partly oblique lower case, it also makes the italic capitals inline in the style of blackletter capitals in the larger sizes of the metal type. It was developed by Rudolph Koch, a type designer who had previously specialised in [[blackletter]] font design (which does not use italics); [[Walter Tracy]] described his design as "uninhibited by the traditions of roman and italic".<ref name="Letters of Credit Koch">{{cite book|last1=Tracy|first1=Walter|title=Letters of Credit|pages=162–3}}</ref>

The printing historian and artistic director [[Stanley Morison]] was for a time in the inter-war period interested in the oblique type style, which he felt stood out in text less than a true italic and should supersede it. He argued in his article ''Towards an Ideal Italic'' that serif book typefaces should have as the default sloped form an oblique and as a complement a [[script typeface]] where a more decorative form was preferred.<ref name="Towards an Ideal Italic">{{cite book|last1=Morison|first1=Stanley|author-link1=Stanley Morison|title=Towards an Ideal Italic}}</ref> He made an attempt to promote the idea by commissioning the typeface [[Perpetua (typeface)|Perpetua]] from [[Eric Gill]] with a sloped roman rather than an italic, but came to find the style unattractive; Perpetua's italic when finally issued had the conventional italic ''a'', ''e'' and ''f''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fonts.com/FindFonts/HiddenGems/Perpetua.htm|title=Monotype Imaging: Perpetua|access-date=8 November 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120110130310/http://www.fonts.com/FindFonts/HiddenGems/Perpetua.htm|archive-date=10 January 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Lo Celso|first1=Alejandro|title=Serial Type Families|url=http://www.designshares.com/share/images/pdf/type_serialtypography.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141108190923/http://www.designshares.com/share/images/pdf/type_serialtypography.pdf|archive-date=2014-11-08}}</ref> Morison wrote to his friend, type designer [[Jan van Krimpen]], that in developing Perpetua's italic "we did not give enough slope to it. When we added more slope, it seemed that the font required a little more cursive to it."<ref name="Tracy2003" />{{efn|Spelling modernised to avoid confusion–Morison wrote 'fount', the usual spelling in British English at the time.}} A few other type designers replicated his approach for a time: Van Krimpen's Romulus and [[William Addison Dwiggins]]' [[Electra (typeface)|Electra]] were both released with obliques.{{efn|Electra was later reissued–although not in Britain–with a true italic, which is the only form most digitisations include. An exception is [[Jim Parkinson]]'s Aluminia revival, which includes both.<ref name="Recasting Electra as Aluminia">{{cite web|title=Recasting Electra as Aluminia|date=11 September 2017 |url=https://letterformarchive.org/news/recasting-aluminia|publisher=[[Letterform Archive]]|access-date=10 November 2017}}</ref> Romulus was issued on Morison's plan with an oblique a script typeface companion, ''Cancelleresca Bastarda'', which has longer ascenders and descenders than Romulus does. Digital period type designer James Puckett describes the obliques on both Romulus and Electra as "spectacular failures [which] pretty much killed the idea for serifed types."<ref name="Puckett">{{cite web|last1=Puckett|first1=James|title=Draughtsman's Alphabets published by Keuffel & Esser|url=http://dailytypespecimen.com/post/153523415173|website=dailytypespecimen|date=22 November 2016 |access-date=10 November 2017}}</ref>}} Morison's [[Times New Roman]] typeface has a very traditional true italic in the style of the late eighteenth century, which he later wryly commented owed "more to [[Didot (typeface)|Didot]] than dogma".<ref name="Changing the Times">{{cite web|last1=Morison|first1=Stanley|title=Changing the Times|url=http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/stanley-morison-changing-the-times|website=Eye|access-date=28 July 2015}}</ref>

Some serif designs primarily intended for headings rather than body text are not provided with an italic, Engravers and some releases of [[Cooper Black]] and [[Baskerville|Baskerville Old Style]] being common examples of this.  In addition, computer programmes may generate an 'italic' style by simply slanting the regular style if they cannot find an italic or oblique style, though this may look awkward with serif fonts for which an italic is expected. Professional designers normally do not simply tilt fonts to generate obliques but make subtle corrections to correct the distorted curves this introduces. Many sans-serif families have oblique fonts labelled as italic, whether or not they include "true italic" characteristics.

==More complex usage==

===Italics within italics===
[[File:Straight italic within italics.png|thumb|right|200px|Straight italic type within normal italics (Latin and Cyrillic)]]
If something within a run of italics needs to be italicised itself, the type is normally switched back to non-italicized ([[Roman type|roman]]) type: "''I think ''The Scarlet Letter'' had a chapter about that'', thought Mary." In this example, the title ("''The Scarlet Letter''") is within an italicised thought process and therefore this title is non-italicised. It is followed by the main narrative that is outside both. It is also non-italicised and therefore not obviously separated from the former. The reader must find additional criteria to distinguish between these. Here, apart from using the attribute of italic–non-italic styles, the title also employs the attribute of capitalization. [[Citation#Styles|Citation styles]] in which book titles are italicised differ on how to deal with a book title within a book title; for example, [[MLA style]] specifies a switch back to roman type, whereas ''[[The Chicago Manual of Style]]'' (14.94) specifies the use of quotation marks (''A Key to Whitehead's "[[Process and Reality]]"''). An alternative option is to switch to an 'upright italic' style if the typeface used has one; this is discussed below.

===Left-leaning italics===
[[File:Figgins Backslant.jpg|thumb|left|A 'backslanted' italic [[fat face]] typeface, made for display use by the [[Vincent Figgins|Figgins]] foundry of London. The typeface is an example of the increasingly attention-grabbing, bold and dramatic fonts becoming popular in British display typography in the early nineteenth century.]]
Left-leaning italics are now rare in [[Latin script]], where they are mostly used for the occasional attention-grabbing effect.<ref name="RyanConover2004">{{cite book|author1=William E. Ryan|author2=Theodore E. Conover|title=Graphic Communications Today|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=choQ91rk0i4C&pg=PA98|year=2004|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=978-0-7668-2075-3|page=98}}</ref><ref name="Nitro & Turbo - Overview">{{cite web|title=Nitro & Turbo - Overview|url=http://www.typography.com/fonts/nitro-turbo/overview/|publisher=[[Hoefler & Frere-Jones]]|access-date=29 February 2016}}</ref> They were once more common, however, for example in legal documents.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.studiotype.be/research/reverseitalics |title=Reverse italics at StudioType |access-date=4 October 2020 |archive-date=19 July 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210719102652/https://www.studiotype.be/research/reverseitalics |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[File:Farsi text Iranic-Normal.png|thumb|right|200px|4 shapes of Adobe Arabic font (Normal, Iranic, Bold, Bold-Iranic)]]
In the 1950s, [[Gholamhossein Mosahab]] invented the ''Iranic font style'', a back-slanted italic form to go with the right-to-left direction of
the script.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Esfahbod |first=Behdad |author-link=Behdad Esfahbod| url=http://www.tug.org/TUGboat/Articles/tb23-1/farsitex.pdf |title=FarsiTeX and the Iranian TeX Community |author2=Roozbeh Pournader |journal=[[TUGboat]] |volume=23 |issue=1 |date=March 2002 |pages=41–45 |access-date=3 January 2013}}</ref> Some modern [[Arabic alphabet|Arabic]] fonts (e.g.: Adobe Arabic, Boutros Ads) support this, and use it when italics is requested.{{cn|reason=Not clear if this happens, or if "Iranic" must be specified|date=March 2025}}

Some font families, such as [[Venus (typeface)|Venus]], Roemisch, Topografische Zahlentafel, include left leaning fonts and letters designed for German cartographic map production, even though they do not support Arabic characters.<ref name="Fonts in Use Venus">{{cite web|title=Venus|url=https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/16/venus|website=Fonts in Use|access-date=13 January 2017}}</ref>

===Upright italics===
[[File:CMU Serif Upright Italic.tiff|thumb|[[Computer Modern]]'s 'upright italic' font.]]
Since italic styles clearly look different from regular (roman) styles, it is possible to have 'upright italic' designs that have a cursive style but remain upright. In Latin-script countries, upright italics are rare but are sometimes used in mathematics or in complex texts where a section of text already in italics needs a 'double italic' style to add emphasis to it. [[Donald Knuth]]'s [[Computer Modern]] has an alternate upright italic as an alternative to its standard italic, since its intended use is mathematical typesetting.

Font families with an upright or near-upright italic only include [[Jan van Krimpen]]'s Romanée, [[Eric Gill]]'s [[Joanna (typeface)|Joanna]], [[Martin Majoor]]'s [[Martin Majoor#FF Seria|FF Seria]] and [[Frederic Goudy]]'s [[Deepdene (typeface)|Deepdene]]. The popular book typeface [[Bembo]] has been sold with two italics: one reasonably straightforward design that is commonly used today, and an alternative upright [[Bembo#Monotype history|'Condensed Italic']] design, far more calligraphic, as a more eccentric alternative.
This italic face was designed by [[Alfred Fairbank]] and named "Bembo Condensed Italic", [[Monotype typefaces|Monotype series 294]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Bixler|first1=M & W|title=Bembo Condensed Italic specimen|url=http://www.mwbixler.com/spec_htm/spbk_bembo2.html|access-date=30 June 2015}}</ref><ref name="auto"/><ref name="auto1"/> Some [[Arts and Crafts movement]]-influenced printers such as [[Eric Gill|Gill]] also revived the original italic system of italic lower-case only from the nineteenth century onwards.<ref name="The Letter Forms and Type Designs of Eric Gill 51-8">{{cite book|last1=Harling|first1=Robert|author-link=Robert Harling (typographer)|title=The Letter Forms and Type Designs of Eric Gill|date=1975|publisher=Published by Eva Svensson, and printed by the Westerham Press|location=Westerham, Kent|isbn=978-0-903696-04-3|pages=51–8|edition=1st U.S.}}</ref>

===Parentheses===
[[File:Monotype Garamond italic.png|thumb|[[Garamond MT|Monotype Garamond]]'s italic replicates the work of 17th-century punchcutter [[Jean Jannon]] quite faithfully, with a variable slant on the italic capitals.<ref name=Warde>{{cite journal|last1=Warde|first1=Beatrice|author-link=Beatrice Warde|title=The 'Garamond' Types|journal=The Fleuron|date=1926|pages=131–179|url=http://www.garamond.culture.fr/en/page/the_article_by_beatrice_warde}}</ref>]]

''[[The Chicago Manual of Style]]'' suggests that [[Bracket#Parentheses|parentheses]] and [[bracket]]s surrounding text that begins and ends in italic or [[oblique type]] should also be italicised ''(as in this example)'', to avoid problems such as overlapping and unequally spaced characters. An exception to this rule applies when only one end of the parenthetical is italicised (in which case [[roman type]] is preferred, ''as on the right of this example'').

In ''[[The Elements of Typographic Style]]'', however, it is argued that, since Italic [[delimiter]]s are not historically correct, the upright versions should always be used, while paying close attention to [[kerning]].

===Substitutes===
In media where italicization is not possible, alternatives are used as substitutes:

* In typewritten or handwritten text, <u>[[underlining]]</u> is typically used.
* In plain-text computer files, including [[e-mail]] communication, italicised words are often indicated by surrounding them with [[slash (punctuation)|slashes]] or other matched [[delimiter]]s. For example:
** I was /really/ annoyed.
** They >completely< forgot me!
** I had _nothing_ to do with it. (Commonly interpreted as underlining, which is an alternative to italics.)
** It was *absolutely* horrible. (Commonly interpreted as bold. This and the previous example signify italic in [[Markdown]], where bolding uses **double asterisks**, and underlining uses __double underscores__.)
* Where the italics do not indicate emphasis, but are marking a title or where a [[words as words|word is being mentioned]], quotation marks may be substituted:
** The word "the" is an article.
** The term "even number" refers to a number that is a multiple of 2.
** The novel "[[Fahrenheit 451]]" was written by [[Ray Bradbury]].

===OpenType===
[[OpenType]] has the <code>ital</code> feature tag to substitute a character to italic form with single font. In addition, the OpenType Font Variation has <code>ital</code> axis for the transition between italic and non-italic forms and <code>slnt</code> axis for the oblique angle of characters.

===Web pages===
In [[HTML]], the <code>&lt;i&gt;</code> [[HTML element|element]] is used to produce italic (or [[Oblique type|oblique]]) text. When the author wants to indicate emphasised text, modern Web standards recommend using the <code>&lt;em&gt;</code> element, because it conveys that the content is to be emphasised, even if it cannot be displayed in italics. Conversely, if the italics are purely ornamental rather than meaningful, then [[Semantic HTML|semantic markup practices]] would dictate that the author use the [[Cascading Style Sheets]] declaration <code>font-style: italic;</code> along with an appropriate, semantic [[HTML#Attributes|class name]] instead of an <code>&lt;i&gt;</code> or <code>&lt;em&gt;</code> element.

===Unicode===
In [[Unicode]], the [[Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols]] block includes Latin and Greek letters in italics and boldface. However, Unicode expressly recommends against using these characters in general text in place of [[markup language|presentational markup]].<ref>{{cite book | title = The Unicode Standard, Version 13.0 | chapter = 22.2 Letterlike Symbols | publisher = Unicode, Inc | date = March 2020 | location = Mountain View, CA | url = https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode13.0.0/ch22.pdf#G15993}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Boldface]]

==Notes==
{{notelist|50em}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== External links ==
{{wiktionary|italic|Appendix:Italic}}
* {{YouTube|id=4vlFxed22Sg|title=The Essential Italic}}, Victor Gaultney (presentation to [[ATypI]])
{{Gutenberg|no=24829|title=The Uses of Italic: A Primer of Information Regarding the Origin and Uses of Italic Letters|last=Hamilton|first=Frederick W.|authorlink=Frederick W. Hamilton|year=1918}}
{{Typography terms}}

[[Category:Typography]]