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Making the text of a document appear italicized is an easy way to convey emphasis. It’s also an easy way to make it hard to read, which is why some need to know how to turn off italics on the keyboard.

Using either CTRL-I or CTRL-SHIFT-I will turn off italics on your keyboard. This will change your font from the immediate location of the cursor or any highlighted paragraph. The two keys however vary depending on the model of the keyboard; some keyboards support only one of the commands.

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Why Is My Font Italicized?

Italic fonts are useful to stress important phrases and words. If you did not intentionally switch the feature, you might want to check the icon <I> on your home screen tab in MS Word to ensure it is not on. However, here are some other reasons that may have contributed to the italicization of your fonts.

Application Choice

You might have to adjust the font settings in your application if you are working on a different platform other than MS Word. Depending on the settings of such applications, some may need you to revoke or reset the whole settings to change the Italics function; while others may support the keyboard customizing function.

Working with such applications might be exhausting given the headache that comes along with trying to change the settings unsuccessfully. You might want to check the application’s settings for any italics button or guideline. If either of these is absent, you may have no other choice but to work with your document as it is, or switch applications.

In most cases, however, as soon as you run a scan on the same file, you may notice the font has returned to default. So, it is always best to work through till completion and check the outcome. Nevertheless, it all depends on the application or platform in use.

Non-Microsoft website

When working with a file in MS Office but on a non-Microsoft website such as Chrome, Paint, or Net. There is a possibility that an auto italics feature might be automatically turned on, but with customizable settings to manage them. In many cases like this, you can adjust the website file settings to resolve the issue by navigating to their font preferences option.

How to Turn off Italics on the Keyboard?

You can disable italics on the keyboard by pressing Ctrl+I. However, this is dependent on what application or website you are working on. Besides MS Office files and a handful of other selective third-party applications, only a few websites offer this feature. They include WordPress, Tumbler, and Blogger, among others.

Other applications may require that you navigate to the settings pages to change their font system.

You may also have to consult with a Virtual Assistant if you are having a difficult time figuring out the italics customization settings. Additionally, you can opt to reset all preferences for the entire website or app and see if it makes a difference.

How to Turn Italics On / Off on a Phone Keyboard?

If you are using a phone’s keyboard, turning italics on or off might be somewhat challenging. Nevertheless, this too depends on the specific applications and websites you are working on. Thanks to the advances in the smartphone world, Android developers are now working tirelessly to ensure you do not run into any problems with your phone.

You can therefore use italics to subtly emphasize phrases in your files without having to go through the settings for text inputs on your android phone. It is possible to do this by:

  • Typing an underscore ( _ ) before the word you want to emphasize and another underscore ( _ ) immediately after the word. For example, our family owns a Toyota _ Alphard _.

Should you be using an iPhone, you might try using the same method or settle for:

  • To highlight a word, double-tap or select and hold it for few seconds; if you need to select more than one word, drag the blue markers across them. Pop-up menus will appear from which you will select the option you wish to use, from the field below that begins with “BIU”.
  • This will cause any of the following options to display on your screen: Bold, Italic, Strikethrough, or Underline. So selecting italics will turn either on, or off, the font of your selected phrases or paragraphs.

There is, however, a possibility that the above italicizing methods might not work in all applications on Android and iPhones. For instance, these formats will not work in messages because the Short Message Service (SMS) does not allow rich text formatting. In this case, the user is not able to customize the fonts and the messages in any way.

How Can I Typewrite in Italics?

Unfortunately, manual typewriters are not compatible with this feature; since italics are more of a printing convention, which does not work on them. However, some latest IBM typewriter models using typeballs have the capability of writing in italics.

The main difference between this latest model and earlier models is that this latest model uses typeballs, whereas earlier models used typebars. Thus, in addition to other modifications to the manual typewriter, manufacturers are currently removing type bars from the old models and replacing them with type balls with italic features. This task is much easier to accomplish because typebars are made of hard, but removable aluminum or plastic. So removing them is never a problem.

What Is the Importance of Italics in a Document?

There is a misconception that italicizing words have similar functions to emboldening them. Other people may also prefer to make use of the underline feature as an alternative to using italics. All this is wrong, because today, many new people in the industry assume underlines are hyperlinks; so it is always best to follow every formatting rule.

Therefore, none of those ideologies is true about italics. Their main importance is:

  • In a text, italics are useful to draw attention to or emphasize a particular point.
  • Fiction writers commonly use this expression to indicate a change in narration from one character’s point of view to another’s.
  • Italics are also useful for setting block quotations. These are longer bits of the information quoted by authors from different sources. Academic writing, however, discourages this, as writers should cite passages they have borrowed from other sources.
  • They are important in indicating the title of a book, album, movie, newspaper, television show, or speech.

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Is There a Keyboard Shortcut for Turning on Italics?

Besides using your mouse in navigating your cursor over to the italic icon < > on the homepage tab. The known shortcut way to do the same is by typing Ctrl + I, or SHIFT- CTRL-I.

Shortcut commands work for the next new word you type from the immediate position of the cursor; while for the normal procedure, you must select the text you want to be italicized first, before changing it.

While Windows and Mac computers have noticeable functional differences, both, use the same shortcut to format texts into italics.

Moreover, the computer industry has also seen the production of multiple keyboard types recently. The result is that some keyboards no longer format italics by using the CTRL + I method, but instead via CTRL + SHIFT + I.

There has been confusion on some keyboards as to why the earlier shortcuts did not work. This is likely due to some other third-party applications taking over the Ctrl + I shortcut. It is a good idea to test either of these shortcuts with Wordpad since it is also compatible with several third-party word processing and editing programs.

Conclusion

The shortcut for turning off italics in the keyboard is CTRL + I, if it fails, it can be CTRL + SHIFT +I. This is because some keyboards and programs have different customization and formatting options. However, some sites may not be compatible with these methods, so you may have to check out the app’s preferences to switch them.