Bold & italic text

Bold text

Use bolded text to call attention to words or phrases that will help the Veteran understand the content on the page.

Don’t use bold in these cases

• In any part of a text link, since the blue and underlining sets apart that text enough.
• For words used to emphasize a point being made in the text, like “only if.”
• When the label is serving as a subhead. Use an H3 or an H4 instead. Screen readers navigate around the page by headings. If the subhead text is regular bold text instead of a header, the screen reader will skip that section of the page.

Use bold text in these cases

These are some examples of when we use bold in VA style.

• The explicit set-up line that comes before bullet points that states something like this: “Both of these must be true.” Review examples on the Eligibility for Veterans Pension page
• The “and” or “or” that comes at the end of each line in a bulleted list.
• The first part of a sentence, when there’s a need to set it apart for scanability. For example, when the first parts of several sentences describe Veterans who fall into different eligibility categories. Review examples on the Eligibility for VA health care page
• Numerals that we know the Veteran is on the page to look for—like a dollar figure. Review examples on the Disability housing grants for Veterans page
• The different types of sign-in accounts we accept or previously accepted on VA.gov: Login.gov, My HealtheVet, DS Logon, and ID.me. Review examples on the View your VA lab and test results online page
• When there’s a “Note:” or “Example:” Review examples on the VA pension rates for Veterans page
• The design element or text link we want the Veteran to select when we’re explaining how to do a task. For example, “In the File menu, select Save.” Review another example on the Verifying your identity page
• If you’re presenting a series of label and value pairs, such as the contact information (address, phone number, etc.) for a location. The label is always bold, not the value, and the label and value are separated by a line break as opposed to a colon. Review examples on the H. John Heinz III Department of VA Medical Center page

Punctuation with bold text

For punctuation following bold text:

• If the bold text is an introduction, the colon or period following it should also be bold (ex. the colon after “Note:” or the period after a list item introduction, “Be concise. Use as few words as possible…”).
• If the bold text is a full sentence, bold any punctuation within or at the end of the sentence.
• If the bold text is only part of a sentence, don’t bold punctuation that isn’t part of the bolded phrase (ex. “Select Continue, then answer the remaining questions).

Italic text

• Don’t use italics. It doesn’t show up well on a screen, and sometimes it can be harder to read than normal text.