Markdown-Discuss Digest, Vol 26, Issue 22

[Yuri T.]

The problem is, italis is also used for things other than emphasis. 
E.g., a common use for italics is to mark foreign words, but it might
be a bit of a _faux paux_ to put <em> around them.  Same for book
titles.

 - yuri


> That's why you find that many (most?) in semantic [x]HTML have finally moved

> up an abstraction layer and write `<em>...</em>` instead of `<i>...</i>`.

> The output is by default rendered the same in visual media, but your markup

> now reads "this segment is emphasized" instead of "this segment should be

> output in an italic font".

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