While roman typefaces are upright, italic typefaces slant to the right. But rather than being just a slanted or tilted version of the roman face, a true or pure italic font is drawn from scratch and has unique features not found in the roman face.
Most word processing and desktop publishing programs have an option to turn a roman font into italic. If a matching italic version is installed, this may work fine. However, if an italic version is not available, some programs will create fake italics by simply slanting the roman typeface.
Venetian printer Aldus Manutius and his type designer, Francesco Griffo are credited with creating the first italic typeface — the term italic paying homage to Italy where the style originated. Originally italic faces were separate from roman type and used for the entire text. Later on, italic versions of roman faces became more common and italic type fell out of favor for large expanses of text. It is used now in small doses (such as pull-quotes, captions, or by-lines) or to create emphasis within a block of text.
The italic equivalent for sans serif type is called oblique.
