This gives emphasis to that type because it looks more important than its neighbours. If the type was all bolder or bigger, then you are back to square one. In scanning a page, the emphasised elements stand out from the others, they take priority and will be read first. Conversely, if you want to de-emphasise some information, you can make it smaller or lighter than the normal. Italics Italics are often used in printed matter to give emphasis to a word or two within a block of regular roman text.
Italic type is generally harder to read than roman and the reader has to slow down to read it.
It gives emphasis firstly because it looks different from the upright stress of the roman and also because the reader's flow is impeded. As the simple test on the left shows, the eye is drawn immediately to the line that contradicts the pattern. In fact, recognising such deviations in regular patterns is one of the human brain' s major strengths. Where italics work well on a printed page, they pixelate horribly on a computer screen. They clash with the natural square pixel grid and are best avoided on web pages, certainly at smaller sizes.