{italic} is specifically about making document elements italic (or removing this font attribute). For questions about {italic-correction}, use the tag of the same name. For general questions about formatting document elements, use {formatting} instead.
italic is specifically about making document elements italic (or removing this font attribute). For questions about italic-correction, use the tag of the same name. For general questions about formatting document elements, use formatting instead.
There are several different ways to get italic or italic-like text in LaTeX; see this question for discussion on when to use the different italic commands.
- Italic is the default for roman letters in math.
- To italicize text, one can use
\textit{...}. - LaTeX also provides slanted text with
\textsl{...}; rather than providing the differently shaped italic characters, slanted characters lean over to the right. See this answer for a discussion about the differences between italic and slanted text. - To use italics for emphasis, use
\emph{...}. This behaves better inside other environments (e.g. an\emphinside an\emphswitches back to roman). - The
\itshapecommand switches italics on, which is useful for defining formatting, e.g. when using the listings package. The analogue for slanted text is\slshape. \itis deprecated; don't use it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I reset italic text to roman in theorem bodies or in mathmode?
