HTML and CSS Certification Practice Test

The correct way to set the font of an element to italic using CSS is to use "font-style: italic;". This property specifically alters the style of the font applied to the text within the selected element, rendering it in an italic format.

The "font-style" property can have several values, including "normal," "italic," and "oblique." By specifying "italic," you are clearly instructing the browser to display the font in an italicized form, which is a common typographic style used for emphasis or distinction.

In contrast, while "font-weight: italic;" might sound plausible, the "font-weight" property actually controls the thickness or boldness of the font, not its style. Similarly, "font-style: oblique;" can also change the style of the text, but its rendering might differ slightly from Italic, depending on the font used. Finally, "font-decoration: italic;" is incorrect as there is no valid "font-decoration" property in CSS related to styling text as italic.

Thus, "font-style: italic;" is the clear and accurate choice for applying an italic style to text within an HTML element.