← Previous revisionRevision as of 15:12, 14 October 2026 Line 11: Line 11: === Font styles and variants === === Font styles and variants === The human eye is very receptive to differences in "brightness within a text body." Therefore, one can differentiate between types of emphasis according to whether the emphasis changes the "[[type color|blackness]]" of text, sometimes referred to as typographic color. The animal eye is very receptive to differences in "brightness within a text body." Therefore, one can differentiate between types of emphasis according to whether the emphasis changes the "[[type color|blackness]]" of text, sometimes referred to as typographic color. A means of emphasis that does not have much effect on blackness is the use of ''[[italic type|italics]]'', where the text is written in a script style, or ''[[oblique type|oblique]]'', where the vertical orientation of each letter of the text is slanted to the left or right. With one or the other of these techniques (usually only one is available for any typeface), words can be highlighted without making them stand out much from the rest of the text (inconspicuous stressing). This is used for marking passages that have a different context, such as book titles, words from foreign languages, or internal dialogue. A means of emphasis that does not have much effect on blackness is the use of ''[[italic type|italics]]'', where the text is written in a script style, or ''[[oblique type|oblique]]'', where the vertical orientation of each letter of the text is slanted to the left or right. With one or the other of these techniques (usually only one is available for any typeface), words can be highlighted without making them stand out much from the rest of the text (inconspicuous stressing). This is used for marking passages that have a different context, such as book titles, words from foreign languages, or internal dialogue. Line 95: Line 95: As a result, typefaces therefore have to be supplied at least fourfold (with computer systems, usually as four font files): as regular, bold, italic, and bold italic to provide for all combinations. Professional typefaces sometimes offer even more variations for popular fonts, with varying degrees of blackness. Only if such fonts are not available should{{citation needed|date=December 2010}} the effect of italic or boldface be imitated by algorithmically altering the original font. As a result, typefaces therefore have to be supplied at least fourfold (with computer systems, usually as four font files): as regular, bold, italic, and bold italic to provide for all combinations. Professional typefaces sometimes offer even more variations for popular fonts, with varying degrees of blackness. Only if such fonts are not available should{{citation needed|date=December 2010}} the effect of italic or boldface be imitated by algorithmically altering the original font. The modern Latin-alphabet system of fonts appearing in two standard weights, with the styles being regular (or "Roman"), italic, bold and bold italic is a relatively recent development, dating to the early twentieth century. Modern "Roman" type was developed around the 1470s, while italic type was developed around 1500 and was commonly used for emphasis by the early 17th century. Bold type did not arrive until the nineteenth century, and at first fonts did not have matching bold weights; instead a generic bold, sometimes a [[Clarendon (typeface)|Clarendon]] or other kind of [[slab-serif]], would be swapped in.{{cite book|last1=Tracy|first1=Walter|author-link1=Walter Tracy|title=Letters of Credit|pages=65–6|quote=The other kind of secondary type, the related bold face, is a twentieth-century creation. Although the use of bold type for emphasis in text began when display advertising became a feature of the family magazines of the mid-nineteenth century, the bold types themselves were Clarendons, Ionics and Antiques quite unrelated to the old styles and moderns used for the text. As late as 1938 the [[Monotype Imaging|Monotype Recorder]], a distinguished British journal of typography, could say, "The 'related bold' is a comparatively new phenomenon in the history of type cutting."}} In some books printed before bold type existed, emphasis could be shown by switching to [[blackletter]].{{cite web|last1=Mosley|first1=James|author-link1=James Mosley|title=Comments on Typophile thread 'Where do bold typefaces come from?'|url=http://www.typophile.com/node/31036|website=Typophile|access-date=16 December 2016|quote=For the record, the Clarendon type of the Besley foundry is indeed the first type actually designed as a 'related bold' – that is, made to harmonize in design and align with the roman types it was set with. It was registered in Britain in 1845...but the idea of a 'bold face' goes back much further. Before the launch of Clarendon type printers picked out words in slab-serifs or any other heavy type. In the 18th century they used 'English' or 'Old English' types, which is why they became known as 'black letter'. John Smith says in his ''Printer's grammar'' (London, 1755). 'Black Letter ... is sometimes used ... to serve for matter which the Author would particularly enforce to the reader.{{'-}}|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220175431/http://www.typophile.com/node/31036|archive-date=20 December 2016|url-status=dead}}{{cite web |last1=Frere-Jones |first1=Tobias |title=From The Collection: 012 |url=https://frerejones.com/blog/from-the-collection-012 |publisher=Frere-Jones Type |access-date=11 November 2018}} Some font families intended for professional use in documents such as business reports may also make the bold-style numbers take up the same width as the regular (non-bold) numbers, so a bold-style total lines up below the digits of the sum in regular style.{{cite web|title=Gotham Numerics|url=http://www.typography.com/fonts/gotham/features/gotham-numerics|publisher=Hoefler & Frere-Jones|access-date=27 September 2014}} The modern Latin-alphabet system of fonts appearing in two standard weights, with the styles being regular (or "Roman"), italic, bold and bold italic is a relatively recent development, dating to the early twentieth century. Modern "Roman" type was developed around the 1470s, while italic type was developed around 1500 and was commonly used for emphasis by the early 17th century. Bold type did not arrive until the nineteenth century, and at first fonts did not have matching bold weights; instead a generic bold, sometimes a [[Clarendon (typeface)|Clarendon]] or other kind of [[slab-serif]], would be swapped in.{{cite book|last1=Tracy|first1=Walter|author-link1=Walter Tracy|title=Letters of Credit|pages=65–6|quote=The other kind of secondary type, the related bold face, is a twentieth-century creation. Although the use of bold type for emphasis in text began when display advertising became a feature of the family magazines of the mid-nineteenth century, the bold types themselves were Clarendons, Ionics and Antiques quite unrelated to the old styles and moderns used for the text. As late as 1938 the [[Monotype Imaging|Monotype Recorder]], a distinguished British journal of typography, could say, "The 'related bold' is a comparatively new phenomenon in the history of type cutting."}} In some books printed before bold type existed, emphasis could be shown by switching to [[blackletter]].{{cite web|last1=Mosley|first1=James|author-link1=James Mosley|title=Comments on Typophile thread 'Where do bold typefaces come from?'|url=http://www.typophile.com/node/31036|website=Typophile|access-date=16 December 2016|quote=For the record, the Clarendon type of the Besley foundry is ind == Recommendations and requirements == [[Linguistics]] professor [[Larry Trask]] stated that "It is possible to write an entire word or phrase in capital letters in order to emphasize it", but adds that "On the whole, though, it is preferable to express emphasis, not with capital letters, but with italics."{{Cite web|url=http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/department/docs/punctuation/node27.html#SECTION00081000000000000000 |title=Capital Letters|year=1997 |first=Larry |last=Trask}} Many university researchers and academic journal editors advise not to use italics, or other approaches to emphasizing a word, unless essential, for example the Modern Language Association "discourages the use of italics in academic prose to emphasize or point, because they are unnecessary—most often, the unadorned words do the job without typographic assistance".{{Cite web | url=https://style.mla.org/italics-for-emphasis/ | title=Is it OK to italicize a word for emphasis in my paper? – the MLA Style Center| date=23 January 2018}} Although emphasis is useful in speech, and so has a place in informal or journalistic writing, in academic traditions it is often suggested that italics are only used where there is a danger of misunderstanding the meaning of the sentence, and even in that case that rewriting the sentence is preferable; in formal writing the reader is expected to interpret and understand the text themselves, without the assumption that the precise intended interpretation of the author is correct. Italics are principally used in academic writing for texts that have been referenced, and for foreign language words. Similarly capitals and underlining have particular meanings, and are rarely used in formal writing for emphasis. ==See also== * {{anli|Type color}} == References == {{reflist}} == External links == * {{Wiktionary-inline|boldface}} {{Typography terms}} [[Category:Typography]]