How to Italicize on Discord

They can be extremely helpful to add more color, impact, and meaning to your messages, especially when you want to emphasize something. Of course, being the go-to VoIP and text chat app for gamers, Discord made sure to include this feature on its platform.

In this article, I’ll briefly show you methods and even shortcuts on how to italicize Discord. Cominciamo!

Oh, by the way, that’s Italian for “Let’s Start”, or at least that’s what the Internet says. Anyway, let’s dive right in. Again.

Text formatting on Discord can be primarily done in two ways: by the use of a context menu and markdown. If those seemingly big words scare you, well don’t be. Although they don’t sound too friendly, they are very easy to do. Trust me.

Using Context Menu

A context menu is just a little pop-up menu that offers you a list of options. In this case, the context menu for text formatting usually appears when you highlight the text. Sounds familiar? That’s because this type of feature isn’t only present on Discord, but on other apps and websites as well.

To italicize text in Discord chats using the context menu, do the following:

1. Step 1

   Type any text you want on the Discord chat area.

2. Step 2

   Highlight the text.

3. Step 3

   

   Choose I (italicized text, one in the middle) in the little menu, just above the text.

   Once you choose the I on the text formatting options, you will see two asterisks side by side of your message.

4. Step 4

   

   Hit send.

Using Markdown Formatting

Markdown is essentially a markup language that is used to make text formatting easier. In other words, it converts text made from a plain-text editor to HTML, thus giving it a formatted look. With Markdown, you can easily format text using just a couple of punctuation symbols–all without leaving your keyboard and using your computer mouse.

To create italicized text in Discord chats, follow these steps:

1. Step 1

   Put an asterisk before typing any text. On most keyboards, you can do this by pressing SHIFT + 8 together. If you’re typing on the Discord app on your mobile device, find the symbol area of your keyboard which can also be found along with the number keys.

2. Step 2 

   Write down your message.

3. Step 3 

   Place another asterisk right after the text.

In short, just put two asterisks on either side of your message, at the start, and at the end. Like this:

After hitting send, your message will become italicized.

Of course, if you only want to italicize a certain word or phrase, just put the asterisks before and after the text in question.

And when you send the message, only the word or phrase within the two asterisks will become italicized.

To make anything italics on Discord, just put two asterisks before and after any text you want to be italicized.

Bonus Tip:

If you can’t be bothered typing in two asterisks on either side of the text, there’s a much, much easier way to italicize everything before sending it.

Just press CTRL + A, and then CTRL + I.

Easy-peasy.

By highlighting all the text (CTRL + A), and then turning them to italicized text (CTRL + I), you can turn any text messages into italics. Whether it’s a few paragraphs long or a single-line text this works pretty well.

And, by the same logic, you can also choose which part of your message to italicize by highlighting the message, and then pressing CTRL + I.

How to create bold italicized text in Discord chats

The Markdown feature in Discord also allows you to do tons of other stuff. You can create bold underlined text, put strikethrough on your messages, and even add color to your text. The last one involves you having to create a single line code block or multiline code blocks to accomplish this, before specifying a syntax highlighting language. You can customize your text a little more by learning how to work around referenced syntax highlighting languages.

Although it’s pretty easy to do, adding color to your text requires a little more effort than the others. If you just want to know the more basic formatting options such as bold italicized text on Discord, they’re much simpler and don’t require you to use diff syntax highlighting. In fact, they can be done in much the same way as we did on the italicized text.

Here’s a quick guide for each:

1. Bold 

   To create bold text, type two asterisks (**message here**) on either side of the text

2. Italicized 

   Type one asterisk (*message here*) on either side of the text

3. Bold Italics

   Type three asterisks (***message here***) on either side of the text

4. Strikethrough 

   Type two tildes (~~message here~~) on either side of the text

5. Spoilers

   To tag your message as a spoiler, type two horizontal bars or pipe symbols (||message here||) on either side of the text

That’s pretty much it. Use one asterisk for regular italics, and then three asterisks for bold italics.

As many of you know, the italics have been used for centuries, especially of course in English-speaking countries. You see them used in books, documents, and literary works. Now, in the age of the Internet, italics are being used everywhere.

Traditionally, italicized text is used for the following:

• Foreign words that aren’t commonly used in English. Buongiorno, bakufu
• Titles of books, movies, and TV shows. The Godfather, Jojo’s Bizzare Adventures
• Onomatopoeic words. Whoosh! Bam!
• Names of ships. San Giorgio.
• Other purposes, including scientific terms. Aquila fasciata.

Of course, italics are also used to emphasize a word, phrase, or sentence. For example:

• I never said I was dying to watch the movie. I just said it might be interesting.
• She said that people like him are just edgy boys who refused to grow up.

Bold text and underlined text can also be used to emphasize or contrast. However, a bold text might be better suited for important words, terms, or vocabulary. Underlined text can do both. Still, italics have a way of making your words more impactful or giving them more weight.

Some people also use italics to indicate an action. It’s akin to putting an asterisk before (and sometimes also after) the text. Like this:

• You think it was someone else, but it was me! grins triumphantly

Although, if you find just the asterisks more effective in conveying the action, then you can do so by putting a space in between the text and the asterisks so Discord won’t italicize it.