LaTeX Beginners Guide

Time for action – exploring grouping by braces

We shall use curly braces to tell LaTeX where to apply a command and where to stop that:

1. Modify our first font shape example to get this code:

   \documentclass{article}
   \begin{document}
   {\sffamily
   Text can be {\em emphasized}.
   
   Besides being {\itshape italic} words could be {\bfseries bold},
   {\slshape slanted} or typeset in {\scshape Small Caps}.
   
   Such commands can be {\itshape\bfseries nested}.}
   
   {\em See how {\em emphasizing} looks when nested.}
   \end{document}

2. Typeset and check out the output:
   

What just happened?

We started with an opening curly brace. The effect of the following command \sffamily lasted until ...