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From: midkiff@portia.Stanford.EDU (Neil Midkiff)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: Italic vs. Oblique (was Re: ATM 2.0 Information)
Message-ID: <1990Sep26.214941.22620@portia.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 26 Sep 90 21:49:41 GMT
References: <4626@zircon.UUCP> <30880001@hplred.HP.COM> <4682@crystal9.UUCP>
Organization: AIR, Stanford University
Lines: 45

In article <4682@crystal9.UUCP> derosa@motcid.UUCP (John DeRosa) writes:
>QUESTION 2 - What is the difference between Italic 
>      and Oblique, technically speaking?

It's a question of the design of the characters.  Oblique type is just
a mechanically slanted version of the upright font.  The letters have
the same basic form, but are skewed to fit in a parallelogram instead
of a rectangle.  This is most often done with sans serif faces like
Helvetica and Avant Garde, although it can be done with serif fonts
like Courier.

Italic type, properly speaking, is a different-but-harmonious design.
Most often the letters have a "pen-stroked" or calligraphic influence
to their shape; true italic types, therefore, are usually associated
with serif fonts that have the thick-and-thin strokes based originally
on hand lettering.
Some letters usually are shaped differently in normal and italic fonts:

 ***             *** *
*   *           *   *
    *          *    *
 ****         *    *
*   *         *   *
*   *         *   * *
 *** *         *** *

(lower-case "a" ... but this bitmapping is difficult and slow.  Just
look at some italic type and note the following.)

The bottom-right stroke on d,h,i,k,l,m,n usually ends with a little
hook in italic type; most non-italic ("Roman" sometimes is used) fonts
have this hook only on the lower-case t.

Italic k often follows the form of handwritten k (kind of like an R in
small capitals with a tall initial stroke like an h).

Italic f usually descends below the baseline of the characters.

And so forth.  Designing a true italic font with these traditional
calligraphic concepts that also looks like it belongs with the Roman
fonts of the same family is a real artistic challenge.  So I'm glad to
see that Adobe and other font sources are making the distinction
between Italic and Oblique.

-Neil