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Seeing as it is quite confusing for non-TeX expert to know how to specify italic or bold font, and the names such as \bfseries are not straightforward...

Is there a package that defines synonyms like \bold and \italic, so one can just do:

{\bold\italic My text}

If not - why? Just curious.

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Andriy Drozdyuk
  • 5,304

1 Answers1

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Provided that no other package defines \bold and \italics and the like, you can include

\let\bold\bfseries
\let\italics\itshape

in your preamble. This would equate the definition of \bfseries with \bold (and others) at the time of call, allowing you to use them as you wish:

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}
\let\bold\bfseries
\let\italics\itshape
\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}% Just for this example
\begin{document}
{\bfseries\itshape Here is some text.} \par
Here is some text. \par
{\bold\italics Here is some text.}
\end{document}​

Why have something like \bfseries and not \bold or plain old \bf? For me, Will Robertson's answer to Will two-letter font style commands (\bf , \it , …) ever be resurrected in LaTeX? makes the most sense and is based on the distinction between formatting decisions and content.

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Werner
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  • Thanks! His answer seems to imply that I shouldn't use itshape in my document if I want to have an italic word - like for the name of the city or a scientific term.. What should I use? – Andriy Drozdyuk Mar 06 '12 at 22:33
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    @drozzy: If you type something like \bfseries or \itshape very often, it is actually better to define a new command that describes why you're changing the font. E.g., \let\keywordstyle\bfseries or \newcommand{\mykeyword}[1]{\textbf{#1}} (see egreg's answer to Consistent typography). That way you can modify \keywordstyle or \mykeyword and it will roll out to the remainder of your document without individually modifying the respective \bfseries or \textbf usages. It promotes consistency. – Werner Mar 06 '12 at 22:48