Non-Designer’s Type Book, The, Second Edition

Italic, Not Underline

Typewriters, obviously, could not type in italic, so an underline on a typewriter was meant to fake an italic; that’s why you were taught to type book titles with underlines, and why you underlined words in mid-paragraph when you wanted to emphasize them. But on your computer you have true typesetting choices —you don’t have to fake it anymore, you can actually type in italic. Besides, the underline is usually too close to the bottoms of the letters and actually cuts into the descenders. And underlining an italic word is simply redundant.