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Lesson 3 of 8

Text Formatting: Bold, Italics, Lists, and Spacing

~8 min read

By the end of this lesson you can emphasize text, build bulleted and numbered lists, set font sizes, and control line and paragraph breaks. LaTeX handles most spacing for you — you mark emphasis and structure, not pixels.

Emphasis: bold, italics, underline

This is \textbf{bold}, this is \textit{italic},
this is \underline{underlined}, and
\emph{emphasis} (usually italic, but context-aware).

Prefer \emph{} over \textit{} for meaning: it italicizes normally, but flips to upright inside already-italic text, so emphasis always stands out. Combine commands by nesting: \textbf{\textit{both}}.

Font size

Size commands apply from where they appear until the end of the current group. Wrap them in braces to limit their scope:

{\small smaller} normal {\large larger} {\huge huge}
Smallest → Largest
\tiny\scriptsize\footnotesize
\small\normalsize\large
\Large\LARGE\huge / \Huge

Lists

Use itemize for bullets and enumerate for numbers. Each entry starts with \item. Nest them for sub-points:

Bulleted, numbered, and nested lists
\begin{itemize}
  \item A bullet point
  \item Another, with a sub-list:
  \begin{enumerate}
    \item First numbered sub-item
    \item Second
  \end{enumerate}
\end{itemize}

For full control of labels and spacing, load \usepackage{enumitem}: e.g. \begin{enumerate}[label=(\alph*)] gives (a), (b), (c).

Quotation marks and dashes

LaTeX uses directional quotes: backticks for opening, apostrophes for closing. Dashes scale by repetition.

``double quotes''  and  `single quotes'

hyphen-, en--dash (ranges), em---dash (breaks)

Line breaks and paragraphs

A blank line starts a new paragraph. A \\ forces a line break within a paragraph. Do not use \\ to create paragraph spacing — that is what blank lines and \vspace{} are for.

First line.\\
Second line, same paragraph.

A blank line above = new paragraph.

\vspace{1em}   % extra vertical space

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between \emph and \textit?

\textit always italicizes; \emph means "emphasize" and is context-aware — it italicizes normal text but switches to upright inside italic text so the emphasis is still visible.

How do I make a whole paragraph bold?

Use a size/series switch in a group: {\bfseries your paragraph}. Use \textbf{} for short inline spans.

Why are my quotation marks facing the wrong way?

Use backticks for opening quotes and apostrophes for closing: ``like this''. A straight " gives the wrong glyph in classic LaTeX.