italischen

Italics, or italische Schrift, is a typographic style in which letters are slanted to the right. The term derives from the Italian word for Italian and is used in many languages to describe an alternate typeface that contrasts with the regular, upright text. The modern italic style originated in the 15th century with Italian printers, notably Aldus Manutius in Venice, who used slanted type to save space and to distinguish certain kinds of text, such as emphasis or foreign words. Over time, italics became a standard feature in Latin-script typography.

In digital typography, italics are typically implemented as a separate font style, either true italics with distinct letterforms or oblique variants that simply tilt the upright letters. They are used to indicate emphasis, to mark titles of works, to denote foreign terms, and in scientific names to italicize genus and species. In mathematical contexts, italic styles are used for variables and symbols, with dedicated mathematical italics fonts and encoding in Unicode.

Within German usage, italische Schrift is commonly described by the adjective italisch or the declined form italischen, while kursiv is also widely used in everyday language. Style guides across languages provide guidelines on when and how to apply italics, including avoiding overuse for emphasis and reserving upright type for longer quotations or important blocks. In typography and font technology, italic glyphs require appropriate font files; modern typesetting engines render italics via font-style: italic or font-style: oblique.