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The Dead Simple Markdown Guide to Emphasis

by TypesettingAugust 20th, 2024

Too Long; Didn't Read

In Markdown, emphasize text by using asterisks or underscores for bold and italic effects. For compatibility, use asterisks when bolding or italicizing the middle of a word, and combine three asterisks for bold and italic emphasis. Avoid underscores to ensure consistent rendering across different Markdown processors.

Emphasis

You can add emphasis by making text bold or italic.

Bold

To bold text, add two asterisks or underscores before and after a word or phrase. To bold the middle of a word for emphasis, add two asterisks without spaces around the letters.

Markdown	HTML	Rendered Output
`I just love bold text.`	`I just love <strong>bold text</strong>.`	I just love bold text.
`I just love __bold text__.`	`I just love <strong>bold text</strong>.`	I just love bold text.
`Loveisbold`	`Love<strong>is</strong>bold`	Loveisbold

Bold Best Practices

Markdown applications don’t agree on how to handle underscores in the middle of a word. For compatibility, use asterisks to bold the middle of a word for emphasis.

✅ Do this	❌ Don't do this
`Loveisbold`	`Love__is__bold`

Italic

To italicize text, add one asterisk or underscore before and after a word or phrase. To italicize the middle of a word for emphasis, add one asterisk without spaces around the letters.

Markdown	HTML	Rendered Output
`Italicized text is the cat's meow.`	`Italicized text is the <em>cat's meow</em>.`	Italicized text is the cat’s meow.
`Italicized text is the _cat's meow_.`	`Italicized text is the <em>cat's meow</em>.`	Italicized text is the cat’s meow.
`Acatmeow`	`A<em>cat</em>meow`	Acatmeow

Italic Best Practices

Markdown applications don’t agree on how to handle underscores in the middle of a word. For compatibility, use asterisks to italicize the middle of a word for emphasis.

✅ Do this	❌ Don't do this
`Acatmeow`	`A_cat_meow`

Bold and Italic

To emphasize text with bold and italics at the same time, add three asterisks or underscores before and after a word or phrase. To bold and italicize the middle of a word for emphasis, add three asterisks without spaces around the letters.

Markdown	HTML	Rendered Output
`This text is *really important*.`	`This text is <em><strong>really important</strong></em>.`	This text is really important.
`This text is ___really important___.`	`This text is <em><strong>really important</strong></em>.`	This text is really important.
`This text is __really important__.`	`This text is <em><strong>really important</strong></em>.`	This text is really important.
`This text is _really important_.`	`This text is <em><strong>really important</strong></em>.`	This text is really important.
`This is really*very*important text.`	`This is really<em><strong>very</strong></em>important text.`	This is reallyveryimportant text.

Note: The order of the em and strong tags might be reversed depending on the Markdown processor you're using.

Bold and Italic Best Practices

Markdown applications don’t agree on how to handle underscores in the middle of a word. For compatibility, use asterisks to bold and italicize the middle of a word for emphasis.