Module 3: The BSI symbols, part I (d)

Bold, italic and underline

Bold
Bold type is thick, or heavy, type compared with normal roman (ordinary upright) type. It is quite
common in headings but is not generally recommended for inclusion in the body of the text because
it tends to leap off the page at the reader and can be distracting. Nevertheless, bold is useful to
highlight certain key words, as we have done in this course text. In the hard copy of the TS a wavy
line under a word indicates that it should be in bold type.

Medium bold type

Some typefaces have a medium bold (or semi-bold) which, as the name suggests, is not so bold as
bold! This is very useful in text where it is not practical to use italic for stress because italic already
appears a good deal for, say, the Latin names of plants. Medium bold differentiates terms from
ordinary text but does not make them as obtrusive as they would be in bold type. Unless you have
been given a copy of the design specification, you will probably not know that the designer has
requested medium bold rather than bold. Just make sure that, if both types of bold are used, they
have been used consistently for the different reasons.

Italic
Italic type slopes to the right. Italic is used for emphasis and for a wide range of names, such as book
and film titles, ships’ names, Latin names of plants and animals, and foreign words. Anything in
paper copy that has been underlined by the copy-editor is intended to appear in italic. (Butcher’s
Copy-editing – see the Book List – explains when italic type should be used. New Hart’s Rules and
New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors (also in the Book List) rule on when to use italic or
roman type for foreign terms.

Note that, if the main text is in italic (instead of roman), the reverse applies: anything that would
normally appear in italic is now given in roman, in order to look different or to stand out.

Underline
Sometimes a word (or words) in a proof should have an underline rather than be in italic. School
books use the underline to mark where a word is to be written in or to highlight a new term instead
of using italic or quote marks.

Changing to or from bold, italic or underline

Changing roman to bold or to italic

It is very simple to mark something to be changed from roman to bold type. Just draw the wavy line
under what is to be changed and then repeat the ‘bold’ symbol in the margin.

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It is also simple to change roman type to italic: a straight line under what is to be changed and the
‘italic’ symbol in the margin.

Underlining the text is the method given in the British Standard. However, there are circumstances
in which encircling is safer or quicker. It might be necessary to change only one character to bold or
italic: encircling that character is then safer because it makes it obvious to the typesetter precisely
what is to be altered. Also, if you need to leave in roman the punctuation that follows, encircling
only what is to be changed will make this clearer than using the underlining. If a large block of text is
to be changed, drawing a circle around the block is generally quicker and neater than underlining
each line.

Changing roman to italic bold

For this you draw both the straight line and the wavy line under what is to be changed, and write the
two symbols one above the other in the margin.

Encircling may be more convenient if there is insufficient space for an underline and a wavy line to
be written in clearly.

Changing bold to roman

If you want to change bold type to ordinary roman (ordinary upright type), encircle what is to be
changed and write the ‘cancel bold’ symbol in the margin.

change from

Changing italic to roman

To alter italic to roman type, encircle what is to be changed and write the ‘cancel italic’ symbol in the
margin.

change from

Don’t underline it: that’s the mark to change to italic!

Other possibilities with bold and italic

Sometimes you need to change something from italic to bold. Encircling the matter to be changed is
straightforward but you need to make two marks in the margin:

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• one to cancel the italic
• one to make it bold.
Put the symbols side by side and then bracket them together so that the typesetter can see that two
changes are required.

You may encounter other such combinations in your work; for example, from bold to italic. Just
remember to use the correct symbols in the correct order and make it clear to the typesetter that
they are a combined alteration.

Marking for underline

If you need to mark a word to be underlined, circle it in the text and in the margin the word (or
words) to be underlined is encircled and in the margin you draw a line within a circle followed by the
usual substitute symbol.

If you are inserting a word that is to be underlined, remember to encircle the underlining so that
typesetter knows that this is what you want. If you draw just an underline, you will get italic!

Removing underline
To remove underlining, the standard way is to encircle the unwanted underline in the text and write
the delete symbol in the margin.

An unofficial way, which might be clearer, is to encircle the underlined word(s) to be changed and
write a ‘cancel underline’ mark in the margin:

Confirming italic or bold or underline

When you substitute or insert something into italic (or bold or underlined) text, always remember to
underline it appropriately to confirm that it should be italic (or bold or underlined).

You would be justified in thinking that this seems unnecessary: it is going into the middle of italic (or
bold or underline), so it will appear in italic (or bold or underline). The reason for this belt-and-

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braces approach is for the odd occasion when there is a string of characters, some of which are italic
(or bold or underlined) and some are not.
Always confirming italic, bold and underline in text changes removes any possibility of ambiguity.

Punctuation in bold or italic or underlined text

When a word (or words) is in bold or italic type (or underlined), punctuation is always ordinary
roman type (or not underlined) unless it is part of what is in that different type. For example, in the
magazine Which? the question mark is part of the title and so it is italic. However, in a list of several
magazines, all in italic, the commas separating each title should be in roman type:
Time, Life, Loot
not
Time, Life, Loot

Now do Exercise 3.4. It is a first proof of a bank’s leaflet promoting a personal loan to its customers.
Please proofread it against the edited copy, and mark amendments using BSI symbols in the usual
way: red for typesetter errors, blue for copy-editor errors and pencil for queries you cannot resolve
yourself.
Remember to confirm use of bold, italic or underline.
When you are happy with your proofread, check your work against the model answer as usual,
remembering to annotate it in green with anything you missed or didn’t get quite right. If you realise
that you don’t seem to have absorbed some aspects, you might like to revise the sections so far to
refresh your memory.

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