Page:The practice of typography; correct composition; a treatise on spelling, abbreviations, the compounding and division of words, the proper use of figures and nummerals by De Vinne, Theodore Low, 1828-1914.djvu/111

 than any other agency in curtailing its use. Italic is rarely seen in the text of the reading-matter of the ordinary daily newspaper, for experience has proved that it is not needed as much as was supposed for emphasis or distinctness of statement. Yet it is not out of fashion in book-work, being used for running titles and subheadings, and to some extent in the text to differentiate words or phrases that might be misunderstood; but it is not used so freely as it has been to mark the emphatic words and examples of educational books. It has been found that the profuse commingling of an upright and an inclined letter irritates the eye, confuses perception, and makes the page hard to read and understand. A light-faced antique of round or slightly compressed form has been found more acceptable than italic for distinctions in the text.

Words and phrases in foreign languages are not put in italic so frequently as they were a hundred years ago, but if the compositor finds italic clearly marked in the manuscript of a disciplined writer, he should obey this direction. Yet there are many good book-houses that forbid the use of italic for the short sentences of the following examples: