Web Design in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition

Italic and oblique are both slanted versions of the font. The difference is that the italic version is usually a separate typeface design with more curved letter forms, while oblique text takes the normal font design and displays it on a slant using mathematical calculations, as shown in Figure 18-7 (top). At small text sizes on low resolution monitors, italic and oblique text may look exactly the same (Figure 18-7, bottom).

    <p style="font-style: oblique">This is a sample of oblique Times
as rendered in a browser.</p>
    <p style="font-style: italic">This is a sample of italic Times
as rendered in a browser. </p>

Figure 18-7. Comparison of oblique and italic type set with the font-style property