Given how involved the current HTML5 definition for `<I>` is, I suppose this will draw more opinion than fact, but nevertheless I want to ask. Also, I have read to some profit a couple threads on StackExchange, as on other sites, too.
I have no issue with ship names, (foreign) idiomatic expressions or foreign co-designations/names/titles in contexts where the title would not be wrapped in `<CITE>`, but when it comes to the following I get lost:
-- referencing designations in a map or print (da Gama Land, I. Nouvelles); e.g. in the NE still with the fabulous <em>da Gama Land</em>
-- (proverbial) designations (Seven Wonders of Louvain, turnaround [German: Die Wende; 1989], Mazarin Bible)
-- name of an institution (eg National Gallery, Louvre, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Pinakothek, Mauritshuis, Depot des Cartes et Plans de la Marine)
-- name of an association (Association Danse Macabre) or company (Holland-Amerika Lijn, Manufacture Royale des Meubles de la Couronne)
-- name of an inn, pub, villa, place (The Red Bull, Trenton House, Casa Loma, Trafalgar Square)
-- name of an event (Last Night of the Proms, Arthur Weinberg Rennen, Pride's Purge)
-- titles of office (Paymaster of the Forces, Lord Chancellor, Capitano del Rei, First Painter to the King)
-- nicknames
-- motto of a book, picture, order (could be Latin, but also English, French), just quoted as part of an item description, not to convey extra meaning to the surounding text
IMHO setting these in italics is a typographic convention to set them off of the surrounding text, without emphasis (thus no `<EM>`, that's clear), but would they really be spoken/read in a "different tone or mood"? I fail to hear/see that. Where italics are not available often quotes are used, which is a context different from an inline quotation `<Q>` though. Thus using the latter with redefined CSS rules is not a solution. Browsers even might still add quotation marks anyway.
So should I use a class with `<SPAN>`? Or would `<I>` still be fine? Someone indeed wrote he thought of `<I>` and `<B>` having become just another `<SPAN>`.
And then there are a few cases which are purely presentational, w/o any apparent further intent, like these reproducing a contents listing from a printed book:
Code: Select all
The Victory. <em>First Rate.</em> 104 G<sup>s</sup>
Dutch Boats. <em>Tacking</em> (Margate)
Thanks for your insight.
JayAitch