Bold, italics and underlining

Applying emphasis with formatting can make content difficult to read, so we:

• Keep bold to a minimum ­
• Don’t underline text on webpages – it looks like a link
• Use italics only for names of publications

If you need to emphasise something, consider rewording it rather than applying formatting.

Bold

We use bold – sparingly – to highlight the most important part of a message:

The deadline to sign up for the event is noon on 14 July.

Don't overdo it, as it can distract the reader and make content less readable. And don't make punctuation bold, unless the whole sentence is.

In print content, make all web addresses, email addresses, hashtags and other social media identifiers bold, to clearly show the reader where to go or what action to take:

#AnimalWelfare

info@thebrooke.org

thebrooke.org

Italics

If you need to emphasise something, consider rewording it rather than using italics.

However, always italicise books, journals, films and musical works:

My favourite book is Little Alf's Adventure Around The World: With Brooke Action For Working Horses and Donkeys.

Brooke's film Unbreakble Bonds won the Charity Film Awards!

If the title includes “The” or “A” at the start, italicise that as well:

A Life Worth Living is the name of Brooke's strategy.

But use quotation marks rather than italics if you're talking about an article within a larger publication or a short story:

The "Global Farriery Project" is part of Brooke's A Life Worth Living strategy.

Use italics for lesser-known foreign words and phrases, including species and general names in Latin:

My bête noire is when people are rude.

The horse (Equus caballus) is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal.

But if it's a commonly used foreign word or phrase, there's no need to italicise:

The mosquitos were biting the poor donkeys.

It was a cliché, but it worked.

Underlining

Underlining makes people think of links and can look messy, so it's best not to use it.