ITALIC TYPE
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(Redirected from Italics)
In typography, 'italic type' refers to cursive typefaces based on a stylized form of calligraphic handwriting. The influence from calligraphy can be seen in their usual slight slanting to the right. Different glyph shapes from roman type are also usually used—another influence from calligraphy.
Sometimes the term ''italic'' is wrongly applied on oblique fonts (mostly sans-serif), when they are merely distorted into a slanted orientation. In italic types, uppercase letters are usually oblique instead of being true italics. Swash capitals 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.
An example of ''normal'' ''(roman)'' and ''true italics'' text:
The same example, as ''oblique'' text:
Some of the most common differences between roman and italic type, besides the slant, are:
★ a one-story 'a',
★ an 'f' with a tail (descender),
★ an 'e' whose bowl is curved rather than pointed,
★ a 'k' with a looped bowl or a (not shown here) ball terminal,
★ a 'p' with an intersection at the stem (ascender),
★ a 'v' and 'w' with swashes and/or curved bottoms,
★ and a 'z' with the stress on the horizontal strokes as opposed to the diagonal vertical one.
None of these differences is required in an italic; some, like the 'p' variant, don't show up in the majority of italic fonts, while others, like the 'a' and 'f' variants, are in almost every italic. Less-common differences include a descender on the 'z' and a ball on the finishing stroke of an 'h', which curves back to resemble a 'b' somewhat. Sometimes the 'w' is of the form from old German typefaces, in which the left half is of the same form as an 'n', and the right half is of the same form as the 'v' in the same typeface. There also exist specialized ligatures for italics, such as one with a curl atop the 's' which reaches the ascender of the 'p' for 'sp'.
In addition to these differences in shape of letters, italic lowercases usually lack serifs at the bottoms of strokes where, in drawing the letter, a pen would bounce up to continue making the letter. Also, at the outsroke of letters, they usually have one-sided serifs that curve up (contrast the flat two-sided serifs of a roman font). One uncommon exception to these two principles is Hermann Zapf's Melior. (Its outsroke serifs are one-sided, but they don't curve up.)
★ Emphasis: "Smith wasn't the ''only'' guilty party, it's true."
★ The titles of works that stand by themselves, such as books or newspapers: "There was a performance of Beethoven's ''Ode to Joy''." 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: "The ''Queen Mary'' sailed last night."
★ Foreign words, including the Latin binary nomenclature in the taxonomy of living organisms: "A splendid ''coq au vin'' was served"; "''Homo sapiens''".
★ Using 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:[1] "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."
★ Symbols for physical quantities and other mathematical variables: "The speed of light, ''c'', is approximately equal to 3.00×108 m s-1."
If something within a run of italics needs to be italicized itself, the type is switched back to non-italicized (Roman) type: ''That sounds like the ''Ode to Joy'' played backwards'', thought Mary.
The ''Chicago Manual of Style'' suggests that to avoid problems such as overlapping and unequally spaced characters, parentheses and brackets 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).
In media where italicization is not possible, alternatives are used as substitutes:
★ In typewritten or handwritten text, underlining is typically used.
★ In plain-text computer files, including e-mail communication, italicized words are often indicated by surrounding them with slashes or other matched delimiters. For example:
★
★ I was /really/ annoyed.
★
★ They >completely< forgot me!
★
★ I had _nothing_ to do with it.
★
★ It was
★ absolutely
★ horrible.
★ Where the italics do not indicate emphasis, but are marking a title or where a word is being mentioned or defined as a direct object, 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 story "A Sound of Thunder" was written by Ray Bradbury.
In HTML, the
Italic type was first produced by Aldus Manutius and the Aldine Press in 1501 as a condensed type for simple, compact volumes.D.B. Updike, Printing Types: their history, form and use, Harvard University Press, 1927 The punches for these types were cut by Francesco da Bologna (whose name was Griffi). In 1501 Aldus wrote to his friend Scipio:
The Aldine italic was modeled on the handwriting of Italian humanist Poggio Bracciolini who wrote in a beautiful and legible style, who was himself emulating the cursive handwriting of blackletter, which Poggio Bracciolini (mistakingly) believed to be the style of Ancient Rome. When we read italic type to this day we are basically reading the handwriting of Poggio Bracciolini.
Unlike the italic type of today, the capital letters were upright roman capitals which were shorter than the ascending
lower-case italic letters and used about sixty-five tied letters (ligatures) in the Aldine Dante and Virgil of 1501.
This Aldine italic become the model for most italic types. It was very popular in its own day and was widely (and inaccurately) imitated. The Venetian Senate gave Aldus exclusive right to its use, a patent confirmed by three successive Popes, but it was widely counterfeited. The Italians called the character Aldino, while others called it Italic.
The slanting italic capital was first introduced by printers in Lyons, and is now used in nearly all italic fonts.
1. "University of Minnesota Style Manual"
In typography, 'italic type' refers to cursive typefaces based on a stylized form of calligraphic handwriting. The influence from calligraphy can be seen in their usual slight slanting to the right. Different glyph shapes from roman type are also usually used—another influence from calligraphy.
Sometimes the term ''italic'' is wrongly applied on oblique fonts (mostly sans-serif), when they are merely distorted into a slanted orientation. In italic types, uppercase letters are usually oblique instead of being true italics. Swash capitals 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.
| Contents |
| Examples |
| Usage |
| When to use |
| Alternative representations |
| Italics within italics |
| Parentheses |
| Substitutes |
| Web pages |
| History |
| References |
Examples
An example of ''normal'' ''(roman)'' and ''true italics'' text:
A pangram set in both roman and italic type.
The same example, as ''oblique'' text:
The same pangram as set in artificially slanted roman type.
Some of the most common differences between roman and italic type, besides the slant, are:
★ a one-story 'a',
★ an 'f' with a tail (descender),
★ an 'e' whose bowl is curved rather than pointed,
★ a 'k' with a looped bowl or a (not shown here) ball terminal,
★ a 'p' with an intersection at the stem (ascender),
★ a 'v' and 'w' with swashes and/or curved bottoms,
★ and a 'z' with the stress on the horizontal strokes as opposed to the diagonal vertical one.
None of these differences is required in an italic; some, like the 'p' variant, don't show up in the majority of italic fonts, while others, like the 'a' and 'f' variants, are in almost every italic. Less-common differences include a descender on the 'z' and a ball on the finishing stroke of an 'h', which curves back to resemble a 'b' somewhat. Sometimes the 'w' is of the form from old German typefaces, in which the left half is of the same form as an 'n', and the right half is of the same form as the 'v' in the same typeface. There also exist specialized ligatures for italics, such as one with a curl atop the 's' which reaches the ascender of the 'p' for 'sp'.
In addition to these differences in shape of letters, italic lowercases usually lack serifs at the bottoms of strokes where, in drawing the letter, a pen would bounce up to continue making the letter. Also, at the outsroke of letters, they usually have one-sided serifs that curve up (contrast the flat two-sided serifs of a roman font). One uncommon exception to these two principles is Hermann Zapf's Melior. (Its outsroke serifs are one-sided, but they don't curve up.)
Usage
When to use
★ Emphasis: "Smith wasn't the ''only'' guilty party, it's true."
★ The titles of works that stand by themselves, such as books or newspapers: "There was a performance of Beethoven's ''Ode to Joy''." 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: "The ''Queen Mary'' sailed last night."
★ Foreign words, including the Latin binary nomenclature in the taxonomy of living organisms: "A splendid ''coq au vin'' was served"; "''Homo sapiens''".
★ Using 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:[1] "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."
★ Symbols for physical quantities and other mathematical variables: "The speed of light, ''c'', is approximately equal to 3.00×108 m s-1."
Alternative representations
Italics within italics
If something within a run of italics needs to be italicized itself, the type is switched back to non-italicized (Roman) type: ''That sounds like the ''Ode to Joy'' played backwards'', thought Mary.
Parentheses
The ''Chicago Manual of Style'' suggests that to avoid problems such as overlapping and unequally spaced characters, parentheses and brackets 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).
Substitutes
In media where italicization is not possible, alternatives are used as substitutes:
★ In typewritten or handwritten text, underlining is typically used.
★ In plain-text computer files, including e-mail communication, italicized words are often indicated by surrounding them with slashes or other matched delimiters. For example:
★
★ I was /really/ annoyed.
★
★ They >completely< forgot me!
★
★ I had _nothing_ to do with it.
★
★ It was
★ absolutely
★ horrible.
★ Where the italics do not indicate emphasis, but are marking a title or where a word is being mentioned or defined as a direct object, 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 story "A Sound of Thunder" was written by Ray Bradbury.
Web pages
In HTML, the
i element is used to produce italic (or oblique) text. When the author wants to indicate emphasized text, the em element, often rendered in italics, 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 Cascading Style Sheets declaration font-style: italic should be used instead of the i element.History
Italic type was first produced by Aldus Manutius and the Aldine Press in 1501 as a condensed type for simple, compact volumes.D.B. Updike, Printing Types: their history, form and use, Harvard University Press, 1927 The punches for these types were cut by Francesco da Bologna (whose name was Griffi). In 1501 Aldus wrote to his friend Scipio:
The Aldine italic was modeled on the handwriting of Italian humanist Poggio Bracciolini who wrote in a beautiful and legible style, who was himself emulating the cursive handwriting of blackletter, which Poggio Bracciolini (mistakingly) believed to be the style of Ancient Rome. When we read italic type to this day we are basically reading the handwriting of Poggio Bracciolini.
Unlike the italic type of today, the capital letters were upright roman capitals which were shorter than the ascending
lower-case italic letters and used about sixty-five tied letters (ligatures) in the Aldine Dante and Virgil of 1501.
This Aldine italic become the model for most italic types. It was very popular in its own day and was widely (and inaccurately) imitated. The Venetian Senate gave Aldus exclusive right to its use, a patent confirmed by three successive Popes, but it was widely counterfeited. The Italians called the character Aldino, while others called it Italic.
The slanting italic capital was first introduced by printers in Lyons, and is now used in nearly all italic fonts.
References
1. "University of Minnesota Style Manual"
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