Ornamentation

Italic

• Use to format titles of publications, acts of parliament, and legal citations quoted in text and bibliographies.

• Use to format a term in a glossary that is being referenced from another term in that glossary.

• Use to format foreign words or phrases that have not been adopted into English. However, such words should be avoided unless there is a reason to do so. Do not ornament words and phrases, such as in situ and post-mortem, that have been adopted into English.

• Use to format the name of an institute in a post-nominal.

• Do not use to format in-text or block quotations.

• Do not use to format terms of jargon. If the term is being described, enclose it in double quotation marks—the term “gerund”, for example, is a noun that describes the action of a verb.

Boldface

Use to show emphasis, but only in informal documents, and then only selectively.

Underlined

Use to show emphasis but use selectively.

Capitalized

Proper nouns, proper adjectives, formal titles, descriptors to numbered cross-references, and defined terms (see Capitalization)

Full caps

Do not use in general text but commonly used in headings

Small caps

Often used in combination with italic to format the names of institutes in post-nominals.

Colour

The use of coloured text and text with a coloured background is determined by your template or corporate style. In general, avoid using too many coloured text styles so that, when they are used, they have the desired effect of attracting the attention of the reader or, if a subdued colour is used, of reducing the focus on that part of the text.

Font style

Fonts are usually controlled by the template or corporate style. Note that a newspaper-style font, such as Times New Roman, is considered to be more readable that most modern fonts, such as Arial and Verdana. Avoid elaborate font styles—they reduce the readability of the document. In general, use a monospaced font, such as Courier New, for file names, URLs, equations, and text that the reader might need to type.

Font size

Font size is usually controlled by the template or corporate style. In general, use font sizes between 9 pt to 11 pt for normal text. Smaller sizes (but not less than 7 pt) can be used for tables and call-outs in figures and for ancillary text that is less important or is not part of the main text, such as copyright notices, footnotes, footers, and other notations.

Italic

Titles of publications quoted in text, and placeholders for text that the user types

Boldface

User interface labels and literals

Underlined

Avoid

Capitalized

Proper nouns, product names, and interface labels

Full caps

Do not use

Small caps

Keyboard keys

Colour

Follow your project style

Monospaced font

File names, URLs, equations, and any text that the user is expected to type