italic

Aldus Manutius' italic, in a 1501 edition of Virgil. Italic is only used for the lower case and not for capitals.

In typography, italic type (or italics, plurale tantum) is a cursive font based on a stylised form of calligraphic handwriting. Along with blackletter and roman type, it served as one of the major typefaces in the history of Western typography. Owing to the influence from calligraphy, italics normally slant slightly to the right, like so. Different glyph shapes from roman type are usually used – another influence from calligraphy – and upper-case letters may have swashes, flourishes inspired by ornate calligraphy.