Multilingual Typesetting Note: Emphasis

What do you think of this typesetting?

There are three words that I want to emphasize in the text, but this is not a very good method. What is the best way to emphasize them?

Negative Points

Improvement Plan

Emphasis is either italic or bold

In Japanese, it is common to emphasize words with quotation marks, but this is not common in Western languages. This is because using quotation marks adds a nuance of "not literal". In Japanese, there is also the term "with parentheses", so please think of it as being even more pronounced. It is not wise to apply quotation marks from Japanese to other languages without careful consideration.

In addition, let's avoid using capital letters as they can be distracting. Underlines are a typewriter convention that cannot be used for italics or bold in typesetting. Combining bold, capital letters, and quotation marks is too flashy and vulgar.

The first choice for emphasis is italics. You can emphasize without sacrificing readability. Bold gives a stronger emphasis because of the contrast. If it is a simple layout like a book, italics are suitable, but if it is a complex layout like a manual, bold is more appropriate.

What do you do in such a situation?

If the entire text is set in italics, it cannot be emphasized in italics. You may want to make it bold, but there is actually a better way. What should you do?

Answer

Change to Roman font. It may be surprising, but it is good if the emphasized words stand out relatively.

What is Italic?

Italics are used as a supplement to Roman type in a handwritten style. They are used for emphasis, as well as for foreign words, literature titles, work titles, scientific names, etc. Italics are designed as a separate typeface from Roman type. Instead of slanting the characters, switch to an italic font.

There are noticeable variations in italic Cyrillic characters, which may confuse those who are not familiar with them, but there is no need to worry as this is normal. In languages other than European languages, it is not common to use italics or oblique fonts. For example, just because English uses italics, there is no need to unnecessarily slant Arabic or Thai.

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Main Reference Materials

Butterick’s Practical Typography（https://practicaltypography.com/）

Kobayashi Akira, "The Background and Usage of Western Fonts", Art Publishing Company, 2005

Takaoka Masao "ABC of European Typesetting Intermediate Edition" TypeTalks Subdivision (Lecture), 2015