simple rules for good typography

[Gare]

I guess you definitely don't want to underline something in HTML, or people will think it's a link ;)

-g-

[Soquili]

Underlining has been used in handwriting and typewriting to convey emphasis for many years. Before typewriters Aldus Manutius of Alpine Press used italic in 1501 to convey emphasis using the printed word. Other typesetters have used Bold type to convey emphasis.

So our first instance of a rule for using Italic or Bold is to convey emphasis to the word or words within a different form of type. Before getting into more rules we must recognize that this forum font does not actually use a true Italic font. Simply slanting the letters does not make a true Italic, it does make an oblique, slanted, sloped, or inclined font form. Through repeated usage these font forms have become more commonly known as "Italic". Just remember that through repeated usage the words ain't and cowabunga have become commonly known in the English language.

Bold text is pretty much relegated to be used for emphasis so we have run out of rules for it's use.

Italic - no that isn't a typo, in the beginning of the use of an italic font capitals at the beginning of a word were always a Roman character. Just a bit of trivia for you.

A few more rules for using Italic text.
Titles of works like books, albums, plays, and periodicals. Titles of short stories, songs, acts, or articles should not be italic, enclose them with quotes.
Names of Ships should be in italic.
Foreign words should be in italic. For example, hasta la vista.
Mentioning a word as an example rather than it's symantic content. "The word the is an article."
Mentioning a letter or a number as itself. "Jon noticed someone had added the letter h when spelling his name." "The name Albus was beside the 1 on the passenger list."


There a more but I'm not usually this verbose. See the wiki article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italic_type.

[Gare]

Oh, and never, never, never use quotes for emphasis. It makes the person who created the sign look like a fool.

When you put quotes around a phrase, generally it means that the phrase within has a meaning other than the author's intention. Sarcasm usually involves quotes. Example:

Get that "antique" out of my driveway.

The person saying this sentence really doesn't believe the car is a valuable antique, but instead a piece of junk.

So when you see a sign that says:

"Free" ice cream today, the reader probably won't assume the ice cream is free, even though the sign creator used the quotes to emphasize FREE.

Use quotes to quote people!



-g-