Bold, italic and emphasis

Styling words

To change how words look, you wrap them in a command:

\textbf{bold} and \textit{italic} and \texttt{typewriter}

\textbf = bold, \textit = italic, \texttt = code-like.

$textbf prints bold, textit prints italic, emph stresses a word$

Emphasis the smart way

\emph{...} means "emphasise this" — usually italic, but it flips smartly inside italic text.
Prefer \emph for meaning, and \textit when you specifically want italic shapes.

A note on quotes and dashes

Type opening quotes with two backticks and closing with two apostrophes: like this'' ``.
A dash in a range is -- (en-dash, like 10--20); a pause in a sentence is --- (em-dash).
These little touches are what make LaTeX documents look professional.

Common mistakes

\textbf{...} is bold, \textit{...} italic, \emph{...} emphasis.
Every opening brace { needs a matching }.

Make the word important bold with \textbf{...}, and the word gently italic with \textit{...}. Then Run to see the styles.

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
This is an important point, said gently.
\end{document}

Click Run to compile and preview the PDF.

Use the right tool for the job. Mark really with \emph{...} (emphasis that flips smartly), and show the file name report.tex in \texttt{...} (typewriter font).

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
This is really the file report.tex you want.
\end{document}