italic text

[Jeff Kingston]

        I would like to have it like

                This is normal text. This is italic text.
                This is the second line...
                This is a third line...

Well, I'm no longer sure what is being asked for here.  However
it is not true that the result of @I { ... } is always a rectangle.

Font changes are broadcast to individual words before assembly into
rectangles (this is somewhat exceptional and inconsistent with the
rest of Lout by necessity), so things like

        The cat sat on the @I { italicised part } mat.

will be treated as a single paragraph with the possibility of a line
break inside the @I.

Jeff.