Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Text formatting

"WP:FORMAT" and "WP:FORMATTING" redirect here. For further help about how to use formatting on pages, seeHelp:Wiki markup.

This is the part of Wikipedia'sManual of Stylewhich covers when toformat textin articles, such as which text should useboldfaceoritalictype.

Boldface

Boldface(text like this) is common in articles, but is considered appropriate only for certain usages.

To create it, surround the text to be boldfaced with triple apostrophes ('''blah blah''').

To denote importance, seriousness, or urgency usingsemantic markup,you can also use the HTML element<strong>...</strong>,or the template{{strong}}which may be used byscreen readersand other accessibility software, though support for this element widely varies depending on the technology used and how it is configured by the end user (i.e., it may well have no effect at all on a given screen reader by default, but it may be useful to some people in certain circumstances).

Article title terms

Main page:Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Lead section § Format of the first sentence

Boldface is often applied to the first occurrence of the article's title word or phrase in thelead.This is also done at thefirstoccurrence of a term (commonly a synonym in the lead) thatredirectsto the article or one of its subsections, whether the term appears in the lead or not (see§ Other uses,below).

This is not a requirement: for instance, it will not be desirable in a case where a large number of terms redirect to a single article, e.g. a plant species with dozens of vernacular names.

Automatically applied boldface

In the following cases, boldface is appliedautomatically,either by MediaWiki software or by the browser:

• Subsection headingsof level 3 and below (===Subheading===,====Sub-subheading====,etc., markup). There are five heading levels used in writing articles (the top-level one being reserved for the auto-displayed page name).
• Terms indescription lists(example:Glossary of the American trucking industry)
• Table headersand captions (but not image captions)
• A link to the page on which that link appears, called aself link

Manually added boldface markup in such cases will end up making excessive double-bold (900 weight) fonts.

Other uses

Use boldface in the remainder of the article only in a few special cases:

• After following a redirect:Terms which redirect to an article or section are commonly bolded when they appear in the first couple of paragraphs of the lead section, or at the beginning of another section (for example, subtopics treated in their own sections or alternative names for the main topic –see§ Article title terms,above).
• Mathematical objects which are sometimes written in boldface, such asvectorsand certain special sets, such as therational numbersymbolQ(seeWikipedia:Manual of Style/Mathematics § Blackboard boldfor further details)
• In some citation formats, for the volume number of a journal or other multi-volume works.

Citation templates,such asTemplate:Citation,automatically supply all formatting (such as italic, boldface, and quotation marks).

HTML's<strong>...</strong>emphasis, which usually renders as boldface, can be used in quotations to represent material boldfaced in the original material. It can also be rendered with the{{strong|...}}template.

When not to use boldface

"MOS:NOBOLD" redirects here. For guidelines on when not to bold an article title in the lead, seeWikipedia:Manual of Style/Lead section § MOS:AVOIDBOLD.

Avoid using boldface for emphasis in article text. Instead, use HTML's<em>...</em>element or the{{em|...}}template (which usually render as italic).

Avoid using boldface for introducing new terms. Instead, italics are preferred (see§ Words as words). Avoid using boldface (or other font gimmicks) in the expansions of acronyms, as inUnitedNations(seeWikipedia:Manual of Style/Abbreviations § Acronymsfor guidelines on acronym style).The same applies to over-explainingportmanteauterms; avoid clauses likeTexarkana is named forTexas andArkansas.

Although it is possible to put non-Latin Alpha bets such as Greek or Cyrillic in boldface, this should be avoided.

The<strong>({{strong}}) markup is generally not appropriate in article text except in quoted material (see above), though it is common in project pages, template documentation, talk page discussions, and other non-article contexts.

Italic type

Further information:Wikipedia:Manual of Style/TitlesandWikipedia:Manual of Style § Italics

Italic type(text like this) is produced with double apostrophes around the content to be italicized:''...''.Italics, along with semantic emphasis (usually rendered as italics), are used for various specific purposes in Wikipedia, outlined below.

Emphasis

The use of italics for emphasis on Wikipedia should follow good English print style. The mostaccessibleway to indicate emphasis is with the HTML<em>...</em>element or by enclosing the emphasized text within an{{em|...}}template. Italics markup (''...'',or<i>...</i>) is often used in practice for emphasis, but this use is notsemanticallycorrect markup, so emphasis markup is preferred. Italics markup is for non-emphasis purposes, such as for book titles and non-English language phrases, as detailed below.

Emphasis may be used to draw attention to an important word or phrase within a sentence, when the point or thrust of the sentence may otherwise not be apparent to readers, or to stress a contrast:

Gellner accepts that knowledge must be knowledgeofsomething.

It may be preferable to avoid the need for emphasis by rewriting a sentence more explicitly. Use of emphasis more than once in a sentence is rarely helpful to readers, unless the emphasized terms are being directly compared (more often awords-as-wordscase for regular italics). See also:§ Quotations,below.

Other non-emphasis uses of italics should use''...''markup,not<em>or{{em}}markup.

Do not use boldfacing for emphasis, as covered in§ When not to use boldfaceabove. Do not use underlining, all caps, or small caps for emphasis, as covered in§ How not to apply emphasisbelow.

Names and titles

For complete guidance on the handling of titles of works, see (until the material is better consolidated):

• WP:Manual of Style/Titles of works(overview and details, including more than that provided in the section you are reading now)
• WP:Manual of Style § Titles of works(which summarizes the key points)
• WP:Manual of Style § Italics §§ Titles(which summarizes the greater detail provided at WP:Manual of Style/Titles)
• WP:Manual of Style § Punctuation §§ Quotation marks §§§ Names and titles(summarizes details at WP:Manual of Style/Titles)
• WP:Manual of Style/Lists of works
• WP:Manual of Style/Music § Capitalization

Italics should be used for the following types of names and titles, or abbreviations thereof:

• Major worksof art and artifice,such as albums, books, video games, films, musicals, operas, symphonies, paintings, sculptures, newspapers, journals, magazines, epic poems, plays, television programs or series, radio shows, comics and comic strips. Medium of publication or presentation is not a factor; a video feature only released on video tape, disc or the Internet is considered a "film" for these purposes, and so on.(SeeWP:Manual of Style/Titles § Italicsfor details.)

Minor works(and any specifically titled subdivisions of italicized major works) are given in double quotation marks not italics, even when the title is not in English.(For details, see§ When not to use italics.)

These cases are well-established conventions recognized in most style guides. Do not apply italics to other categories or instances because you feel they are creative or artful (e.g. game or sport moves, logical arguments, "artisanal" products, schools of practice or thought, etc.).

• Court case names:FCC v. Pacifica.(Case citationorlaw reportinformation is presented in normal font.)

• Certainscientific names:
  • Genes(but notproteinsencoded by genes).
  • Genera(and abbreviation thereof) and all lowertaxa(includingspeciesandsubspecies), but not higher taxa (e.g. family, order, etc.). The entire scientific name should be italicized, except where an interpolation is included in or appended to the name.(For details, see§ Scientific names.)
• Named, specific vessels:proper namesgiven to:
  • Ships, withship prefixes,classification symbols,pennant numbers,and types in normal font:USSBaltimore(CA-68).Italicize ship names when they appear in the names of classes of ships (theBaltimore-class cruisers).(SeeWikipedia:Naming conventions (ships)for more detail on ship and ship class titles.)
  • Aircraft:theSpirit of St. Louis
  • Spacecraft (including fictional): theSpace ShuttleChallenger,Gaiaspace observatory,USSEnterpriseNCC-1701,Constitution-class starships.Do not italicize a mission, series, or class except where it coincides with a craft's name: theEaglewas theApollo 11 lunar lander;Voyager 2was launched as part of theVoyager program.
  • Trains and locomotives:theCity of New Orleans(train)

The vessels conventiondoes not applyto smaller conveyances such as cars, trucks, and buses, or to mission names. Also, most real-world spacecraft and rockets at this time are not given proper names, thusApollo 11,Saturn V,Falcon 9,etc. are not appropriate to apply to spacecraft.

Usepiped linkingto properly italicize in wikilinks: "USSBaltimore(CA-68),the lead ship of theBaltimore-class cruisers",is produced by[[USS Baltimore (CA-68)|USS''Baltimore''(CA-68)]],the lead ship of the[[Baltimore-class cruiser|''Baltimore''-class cruisers]]

Words as words

Use italics when writing about words as words, or letters as letters (to indicate theuse–mention distinction). Examples:

• The termpanningis derived frompanorama,which was coined in 1787.
• Deucemeans 'two'.(Linguistic glossesgo in single quotation marks.)
• The most common letter in English ise.

When italics could cause confusion (such as when italics are already being heavily used in the page for some other purpose, e.g., many non-English words and phrases), double quotation marks instead may be used to distinguish words as words ("Just Say No" was an advertising campaign). Quotation marks may also be used when a whole sentence is mentioned (The preposition inShe sat on the chairison;orThe preposition in "She sat on the chair" is "on"). For very small characters by themselves, code style is helpful:.(this is produced by:<code>.</code>).

Atechnical or other jargonterm being introduced is often being mentioned as a word rather than (or in addition to) playing its normal grammatical role; if so, it should be italicized or quoted, usually the former. This first occurrence of the termshould also usually be linkedif it has its own article (or section, orglossary entry) corresponding exactly to the meaning when used in the present article.

Italics may also be used where<dfn>tags or{{dfn}}templates mark a term's first use, definition, introduction, or distinguished meaning on the page. Note that<dfn>tags and{{dfn}}templates do not apply text formatting, so the italicization (or quoting) must be added if intended. For instance, in theConsciousnessarticle:

• Access consciousnessis the phenomenon whereby information in our minds is accessible for verbal report and reasoning.
• ''<dfn>Access consciousness</dfn>''is...

If, however, a term is an alternative name for the subject of the article (often the target of aredirect), thenboldfaceshould be used in place of italics or quotation marks at such a first occurrence(see§ Article title terms,above):

Thesmall forward(SF), also known as thethree,is one of the five positions in a regulation basketball game.

Generally, use only one of these styles at a time (do not italicize and quote, or quote and boldface, or italicize and boldface) for words-as-words purposes. Exceptionally, two styles can be combined for distinct purposes, e.g. a film title is italicized and it is also boldfaced in the lead sentence of the article on that film (seeWP:ITALICTITLEfor additional requirements and guidance):

Roundhay Garden Sceneis a very brief silent motion picture...

Combined styles are also valid in articles about a term or when significant terms redirect to an article, as in:

The "New World"is a term which is applied to...

Do not switch back and forth between styles in the same material (e.g., using italics for words as words in one paragraph, then quotes in another).

Non-English-language terms

See also:Wikipedia:Manual of Style § Non-English terms,andWikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility § Other languages

Wikipedia generally usesitalicsfor words and phrases from non-English languages if they are written using theLatin Alpha bet.This does not apply toloanwordsor phrases that see everyday use in non-specialized English, such asqi,Gestapo,samurai,esprit de corps,e.g.,i.e.,etc.—as these have become English-language vocabulary. Use the native spellings of non-English language vocabulary using the Latin Alpha bet, with or withoutdiacritics—otherwise, you shouldanglicizetheir spelling. For example:

• Gustav I of Swedenliked to breakfast oncrispbread(knäckebröd) open sandwiches with toppings such asmessmör(butter made from goat's milk), ham, and vegetables.
• Code:[[Gustav I of Sweden]]liked to breakfast on[[crispbread]]({{lang|sv|knäckebröd}}) open sandwiches with toppings such as{{lang|sv|messmör}}(butter made from goat's milk), ham, and vegetables.

The{{lang}}template and its variants support allISO 639language codes, correctly identifying the language and automatically italicizing for you. Please use these templates rather than manually italicizing non-English material.(SeeWP:Manual of Style/Accessibility § Other languagesfor more information.)

Use non-English vocabulary sparingly; for more information, seeWikipedia:Writing better articles § Use other languages sparingly. Certain specialist or non-English terms are not italicized, including musical terminology likeminuetandadagio.As a rule of thumb, do not italicize words that appear in multiple major English dictionaries.

If it is necessary to include terms written in a non-Latin script, they can be placed in parentheses.Text in non-Latin scripts(such asGreek,CyrillicorChinese)should neither be italicized as non-English nor bolded,even where this is technically feasible; the difference of script suffices to distinguish it on the page. However,titles of major works that should be italicizedare italicized in scripts that support that feature (including Latin, Greek and Cyrillic); do not apply italic markup to scripts that do not (including Chinese, Japanese, and Korean).

Someproper names—including personal names, place names, and the names of organizations—are usually not italicized as non-English vocabulary.However, these may be italicized for other reasons, including whenthe name itself is being referred to.For example, non-English names listed as translations in the lead of an article should be italicized, e.g.Nuremberg(German:Nürnberg).Non-English names of works should be italicized just like those in English are, e.g.Les Liaisons dangereuses.When a name should not be italicized, language markup can still ensure proper pronunciation in screen readers, by using the|italic=unsetparameter:{{lang|de|italic=unset|Nürnberg}}.

For betteraccessibility,Latinquotations should not be set inall capsorsmall caps.When reproduced for their content, inscriptions that were originally set in all caps should be transcribed according to standard rules of English capitalization. Please note, however, that simply undoing caps may result in incorrect orthography; for example, capitalVmay represent either the consonantvor the vowelu.All-caps or preferably small-caps presentationmay be preservedwhen it is contextually useful, as in technicallinguisticmaterial and descriptions ofartifacts.Editors should be cautious about makingtheir own interpretationswhen transcribingepigraphicandnumismaticsources. Particularly on coins, a character that appears to be a letter may instead be aRoman numeral,a denomination, or a symbol. For articles that reproduce examples of epigraphy or coin legends, editors should consult the orthography of expert secondary sources(see alsodiplomatic transcription).

See also:Template:Lang/docandrelated templatedocumentation onmarking up non-English text for accessibility purposes.

For an index of additional MoS material pertaining to non-English language text (interlinear glosses, titles of work, organisms' vernacular names, non-English quotations and quotation marks), seeWikipedia:Manual of Style § Other non-English concerns.

Scientific names

Main page:Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Organisms

Scientific namesof organisms are formatted according to normaltaxonomic nomenclature.

• Do not italicize (but do capitalize) taxa higher thangenus(exceptions are below).
  • Virustaxonomy is a partial exception; current scientific practice is to italicize all ranks of taxa (even those higher than genus; e.g.,Ortervirales,an order, orHerpesviridae,a family). However, this should only be done in articles about viruses or virology; mentions of virus taxa in articles about other forms of life should follow the normal rules for italicizing scientific names.
• Italicize all lowerranks (taxa):genus(capitalized),subgenus(capitalized),species,subspecies.
  • Names of genera are always italicized (and capitalized), even when not paired with a species name:Allosaurus,Falco,Anas.
  • The entirebinomialortrinomialscientific name is italicized, whether given in full or abbreviated: (Liriodendron tulipifera,N. v. piaropicola).
• Interpolations such as "cf.", "×", "var.", or "subsp." are not italicized:Ninoxcf.novaeseelandiae,the chaussie is a hybrid cat (Felis catus×F. chaus).
• Parenthetic expressions should not be italicized unless part of the scientific name, as in the case of a subgenus, which is always italicized, though the parentheses (round brackets) are not:Potentilla(Sibbaldiopsis)tridentata.
• Do not italicize authorities (author names) juxtaposed with scientific names:SubgenusPotentillaSymeand subgenusHypargyrium(Fourr.) Juz.have been combined under subgenusPotentillaSyme.In the article body, wrap the authority information in{{small}}or <small>...</small>. (This need not be done for authorities in a taxobox that are entered using parameters such|authority=or|parent_authority=,since small text is then used automatically. For synonym lists, either use templates like{{Species list}}which automatically use small text for authorities, or wrap the authority information as described above.)

Derived uses in non-biological contexts are not italicized:The largest carnivore in family Tyrannosauridae wasT. rexitself,butUnicornwas an album by the bandT. Rex.

Although often derived from Latin or Ancient Greek, scientific names are never marked up with{{lang}}or related templates.

Quotations

Main pages:MOS:QUOTEandMOS:WORDSASWORDS

Do not put quotations in italics.Quotation marks(orblock quoting) alone are sufficient and the correct ways to denote quotations. Italics should only be used if the quoted material would otherwise call for italics.

Use italics within quotations to reproduce emphasis that exists in the source material or to indicate the use of non-English words. The emphasis is better done with{{em}}.If it is not clear that the source already included italics (or some other styling) for emphasis, or to indicate when emphasis was not used in the original text but was editorially added later, add the editorial note[emphasis in original]or[emphasis added],respectively, after the quotation.

• For example:"Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince: Andflights of angelssing thee to thy rest. "[emphasis in original].

Variables

Program variables

Variables in computer programs and symbols for program variables within plain-English prose and in computer source code presented as textual content can be marked up with the{{var}}template:

• ...where{{var|x}}is incremented on each pass...⇒...wherexis incremented on each pass...
• |id={{var|ISBN or other identifier}}⇒|id=ISBN or other identifier

This provides richer semantic markup over simple italicization (or no formatting at all), that can aid in searching, accessibility, and disambiguation between variables and literal values.

Mathematics variables

Main page:Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Mathematics

See also:Help:Displaying a formula

<math>...</math>LaTeX markupproduces a serif font, unlike the default sans-serif prose font. To avoid confusion over the meaning of symbols, usemath templatesthat put math expressions in a serif font. This also makes it easier to distinguish betweenI(upper-case i) andl(lower-case L), which look almost identical in many sans-serif fonts. Math variables are always written in italics. For standalone references to math variables, use{{mvar}},which will render in an italic serif font. For math equations, use{{math}}.For variables within{{math}},use double apostrophes to make italics.

• The value of{{mvar|y}}is always...⇒The value ofyis always...
• {{math|''E''{{=}}''mc''<sup>2</sup>}}⇒E=mc²

Some things remain in upright form regardless of the surrounding text

• Bold-face variables (such as vectors) and structures (such asQ,the rational numbers)
• Letters with an arrow on top for vectors
• Symbols for chemical elements and compounds such as HCl
• Symbols for units of measure such as kg, ft/s
• Symbols for mathematical operators such assinandln;for example:

  sinx,ln (p/p₀)

Uses of italics that are specific to Wikipedia

One-line notes that are placed at the top of articles or sections (most often to assistdisambiguationor provide cross-references) arehatnotes.One-line notes may also be placed at the top of sections to cross-reference or point to additional information that is not directly linked in the text. Both of these are in italics and indented to distinguish them from the text of the article proper. TheDisambiguation and redirection templatesandWikipedia page-section templatesautomatically provide the required italic formatting.

Special section headingsfor appendices such as==See also==arenotin italics.

A further type of cross-reference may occur within a paragraph of text, usually in parentheses (round brackets). For example:At this time France possessed the largest population in Europe(seeDemographics of France).Here, the cross-referenced article does not topically make a good target for a running-text link from the phrase "largest population in Europe",or any other text in the sentence, but has been deemed relevant enough to mention in passing without relegating it to the" See also "section at the bottom of the article. These kinds of cross-references can be formatted easily with the{{Crossreference}}a.k.a.{{Crossref}}template (or, to other sections on the same page,{{See above}}and{{See below}}). In any case where such a link in running textwould be proper,it is preferred over a parenthetical, explicit cross-reference.

Like hatnotes, these parenthetical cross-references are set off by being italicized in their entirety, asWikipedia self-references,and not part of the article content proper. Unlike some traditional reference works, the convention that has evolved on Wikipedia isnotto individually italicize "see" or "see also". Wikipedia's own article titles are not put in quotation marks in such cross-references.

When not to use italics

Further information:Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Titles § Quotation marks

Italics are generallyused only for titles of longer works.Titles of shorter works should be enclosed in doublequotation marks( "text like this" ). This particularly applies to works that exist as a smaller part of a larger work. These include but are not limited to: articles, essays, papers, chapters, reference work entries, newspaper and magazine sections or departments, episodes of audio-visual series, segments or skits in longer programs, short poems, short stories, story lines and plot arcs; songs, album tracks and other short musical works; leaflets and circulars.

Italics should not be used fornon-English textin non-Latin scripts, such asChinese charactersandCyrillic script,or for proper names, to which the convention of italicizing non-English words and phrases does not apply; thus, a title of a short non-English work simply receives quotation marks.

How not to apply emphasis

Avoid various kinds of overemphasis, other than the recommended one (see:MOS:EMPHASIS), which would distract from the writing:

• Exclamation points (!) should usually only be used in direct quotes and titles of creative works.
• Bold typeisreserved for certain uses.
• Quotation marks for emphasis of a single word or phrase are incorrect, and "scare quotes"are discouraged. Quotation marks are to show that you are using the correct word as quoted from the original source. For example:His tombstone was inscribed with the name "Aaron" instead of the spelling he used during his life.
• Avoid usingALL CAPSandsmall capsfor emphasis(for legitimate uses, seeWP:Manual of Style/Capital letters § All caps).Italicsare usually more appropriate.
• Double emphasis, such asitalics and boldface,"italics in quotation marks",oritalics and an exclamation point!,is unnecessary.
• Underliningis used in typewriting and handwriting to represent italic type. Generally, do not underline text or it may be confused withlinkson a web page.
• Do not capitalize words merely as a form ofemphasis or signification.

Other text formatting concerns

Font size

See also:Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility § Font size,andMOS:SMALLCAPS

"MOS:SIZE" redirects here. For the page-length guideline, seeWikipedia:Article size.

Editors should avoid manually inserting large and small fonts into prose. Increased and decreased font size should primarily be produced through automated facilities such as headings or through carefully designed templates.

Reduced or enlarged font sizes should be used sparingly, and are usually done with automated page elements such as headings, table headers, and standardized templates. Size changes are specified as apercentageof the original font size and not as an absolute size in pixels or point size. This improves accessibility for visually impaired users who use a large default font size.

Avoid using smaller font sizes within page elements that already use a smaller font size, such as most text withininfoboxes,navboxes,andreferences sections.This means that<small>...</small>tags, and templates such as{{small}}and{{smalldiv}},should not be applied toplain textwithin those elements. In no case should the resulting font size of any text drop below 85% of the page's default font size. Note that the HTML<small>...</small>tag has a semantic meaning offine printor side comments;do not use it for stylistic changes.

For use of small text for authority names with binomials, see§ Scientific names.

Color

Main page:Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility § Color

In prose

Prose text should never be colored. Refrain from implementingcolored linksthat may impede user ability to distinguish links from regular text, or color links for purely aesthetic reasons. See alsoWikipedia:Manual of Style/Linking.

In templates and tables

1. Colors used in templates such asnavboxesandinfoboxes,and intables,should not make reading difficult, including for colorblind or otherwise visually impaired readers.
2. Colors that are useful for identification and areappropriate, representative, and accessiblemay be used with discretion and common sense. In general, text color should not be anything other than black or white (excluding the standard colors of hyperlinks), and background colors should contrast the text color enough to make the template easily readable. SeeWikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility/Colorsfor more information.
3. An "appropriate, representative" color, when intended to identify with an organization's logo or branding, should use the most prominentaccessiblecolor in the logo. For example,Template:Pink Panthershould be using a background ofF6D4E6 (the color of the body inFile:Pink Panther.png) rather thanE466A9 (the color of the background in that image). A representative color useful in a navbox is often already present in an article's infobox (if included), and these are sometimes specified programmatically. For example,the navboxassociated with theNational Register of Historic Placesand other related categorizations should conform to Wikipedia'sNRHP colors legend.
4. In the case that no properly identifying, accessible color exists; or the subject of the template or table should not be identified with a particular color (e.g., an average biography), the default colors provided by the template or the table class should be used.
5. If an article includes several navboxes whose colors conflict with each other, discretion should be used to minimize the visual disruption by using the default colors for navboxes.
6. Content should also be easy to read indark mode,preferably without a large area of bright background. This can be accomplished by removing color styling and using the default skin colors, by picking colors that work well in both light and dark mode, or by setting different colors for each mode using techniques from theofficial MediaWiki recommendations.

Font family

Font familiesshould not be explicitly defined in an article, with the exception of PUA characters (next section), because this interferes with Wikipedia's flexibility, and it is impossible to foresee what fonts will be installed on a user's computer.

Articles used to explicitly define font families for special characters, because older browsers could not automatically select an appropriate font. This is no longer dealt with by using explicit font definitions in the articles. Certain definitions can be invoked by using special templates(seeHelp:Special characters,and templates listed atTemplate:Unicode).

Capital letters

The use of capital (upper-case) letters, including small-capitals style, is covered in detail atWP:Manual of Style/Capital letters.

Citations

Main pages:Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Layout § Notes and references,andWikipedia:Citing sources

Text formatting in citations should follow, consistently within an article, an established citation style or system. Options include either of Wikipedia's own template-basedCitation Style 1andCitation Style 2,and any other well-recognized citation system.

Parameters in thecitation templatesshould be accurate.Do not evade the formatting applied by a parameter, e.g. by using markup tricks or by switching to an inapplicable parameter simply because its style of output is different.A parameter with useful citation data should not be omitted just because the auto-applied style is not in agreement with text-formatting guidelines; that is a template bug to fix.

Strikethrough

Main page:Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility § Text

Do not usestrikethroughto indicate inappropriate or incorrect material;this causes accessibility and comprehensibility problems, and there are several better alternatives,including commenting out, deletion, and tagging for discussion. Intentional use of strikethrough as part of the content is discouraged for similar reasons. If strikethrough is used to indicate deleted text, such as in textual analysis, it should be implemented withsemantic HTMLelement<del>and combined with other techniques for accessibility purposes.

Private Use Area and invisible formatting characters

The only invisible characters in the editable text should be spaces and tabs. However, other invisible characters are often inserted inadvertently by pasting from a word processor, from the rendered Wikipedia page (in some browsers),or from Wikipedia's Android editor.These can cause confusion with editors and handling problems with editing software. Any necessary invisible orPrivate Use Area(PUA) characters should be substituted with their decimal or hexadecimal code values (that is, as &...;) so that they can be edited properly. A template,{{PUA}},is used to mark PUA characters; it has no effect on the text, but places the article in a tracking category.(See the next sections for examples.)

Mixed right-to-left text

When right-to-left text is embedded in certain left-to-right contexts, such as when tagged with a reference, it may require control characters to display properly. The marker to return to left-to-right text should be encoded as&lrm;or supplied through the template{{lang}}.

Depending on your browser, there may be a difference between the display of unformatted Urdu:

خ?<ref>citation details</ref>:خ?

with formatted:

خ&lrm;?<ref>citation details</ref>:خ‎?or{{lang|ur|خ}}?<ref>citation details</ref>:خ?

and unformatted:

(خ)<ref>citation details</ref>:(خ)

with formatted:

(خ)&lrm;<ref>citation details</ref>:(خ)‎or{{lang|ur|(خ)}}<ref>citation details</ref>:(خ)

If there is intervening LTR text, as inخ abc<ref>citation details</ref>,a control character is not required. Spacing and most punctuation, however, are not defined as either LTR or RTL, so the direction of the text needs to be reset manually.

PUA characters

Private Use Area(PUA) characters are in three ranges of code points (U+E000–U+F8FF in theBMP,and inplanes 15 and 16). PUA characters should normally be avoided, but they are sometimes used when they are found in common fonts, especially when the character itself is the topic of discussion.

Where PUA characters cannot be replaced with non-PUA Unicode characters, they should be converted to their (hexa)decimal code values (that is, &#...; or &#x...;). However, whenever a PUA character has a Unicode equivalent, it should instead be replaced with that equivalent (Unicodified). The Unicode may be obvious when text is copied and pasted from a document that uses the PUA for bullets or similar characters in Latin text, but similar things happen with punctuation and emoticons in documents using Japanese and other scripts, so an editor familiar with those scripts may be needed. In Chinese documents it is not uncommon for the PUA to be used for characters that now have full Unicode support, due to poorer support for Chinese characters when those fonts were designed. Such PUA characters, which are sometimes found on Wikipedia in references and footnotes, should not be substituted with their (hexa)decimal values, as that will lock in the illegible character. If you're moderately familiar with the script, an internet search of the surrounding text will often locate a fully Unicode version of the text which can be used to correct the Wikipedia article.

Because browsers do not know which fonts to use for PUA characters, it is necessary for Wikipedia to specify them. Formatting via one of the templates listed atTemplate:Unicodeis sufficient in some cases. Otherwise the fonts should be specified through html markup, as in the example below. Note that if a font is not specified, or if none of the fonts are installed, readers will only see a numbered box in place of the PUA character.

Tagging a (hexa)decimal code with the template{{PUA}}will enable future editors to review the page, and to Unicodify the character if it is included in future expansions of Unicode. This happened, for example, atstrident vowel,where a non-Unicode symbol for the sound was used in the literature and added to the PUA of SIL's IPA fonts. Unicode didn't support it until several years after the Wikipedia article was written, and once the fonts were updated to support it, the PUA character in the article was replaced with its new Unicode value.

For example,

SIL added these letters at U+F267 and U+F268:<span style= "font-family:Gentium Plus, Charis SIL, Doulos SIL, serif" >{{PUA|&#xf267;}},{{PUA|&#xf268;}}</span>.

which renders as:

SIL added these letters at U+F267 and U+F268:, .

SeeCategory:Articles with wanted Private Use Area charactersand especiallyTengwar § Unicodefor examples of PUA characters which cannot easily be replaced.

See also

• WP:Advanced text formatting
• WP:Manual of Style/Capital letters
• WP:Manual of Style/Command-line examples
• WP:Manual of Style § Ligatures
• WP:Superfluous bolding explained(essay)