Italic Corrections (The GNU Troff Manual)

#### 5.19.9 Italic Corrections

When typesetting adjacent glyphs from typefaces of different slants, the space between them may require adjustment.

Escape sequence: `\/``` ¶

  Apply an italic correction: modify the spacing of the preceding glyph so that the distance between it and the following glyph is correct if the latter is of upright shape. For example, if an italic ‘`f`’ is followed immediately by a roman right parenthesis, then in many fonts the top right portion of the ‘`f`’ overlaps the top left of the right parenthesis, which is ugly. Use this escape sequence whenever an oblique glyph is immediately followed by an upright glyph without any intervening space.

Escape sequence: `\,``` ¶

  Apply a left italic correction: modify the spacing of the following glyph so that the distance between it and the preceding glyph is correct if the latter is of upright shape. For example, if a roman left parenthesis is immediately followed by an italic ‘`f`’, then in many fonts the bottom left portion of the ‘`f`’ overlaps the bottom of the left parenthesis, which is ugly. Use this escape sequence whenever an upright glyph is followed immediately by an oblique glyph without any intervening space.