diff --git a/lib/Epub/Epub/ParsedText.cpp b/lib/Epub/Epub/ParsedText.cpp
index 82d0db61..1a0d2c56 100644
--- a/lib/Epub/Epub/ParsedText.cpp
+++ b/lib/Epub/Epub/ParsedText.cpp
@@ -29,15 +29,17 @@ void stripSoftHyphensInPlace(std::string& word) {
   }
 }
 
-// Returns the rendered width for a word while ignoring soft hyphen glyphs and optionally appending a visible hyphen.
+// Returns the advance width for a word while ignoring soft hyphen glyphs and optionally appending a visible hyphen.
+// Uses advance width (sum of glyph advances) rather than bounding box width so that italic glyph overhangs
+// don't inflate inter-word spacing.
 uint16_t measureWordWidth(const GfxRenderer& renderer, const int fontId, const std::string& word,
                           const EpdFontFamily::Style style, const bool appendHyphen = false) {
   if (word.size() == 1 && word[0] == ' ' && !appendHyphen) {
-    return renderer.getSpaceWidth(fontId);
+    return renderer.getSpaceWidth(fontId, style);
   }
   const bool hasSoftHyphen = containsSoftHyphen(word);
   if (!hasSoftHyphen && !appendHyphen) {
-    return renderer.getTextWidth(fontId, word.c_str(), style);
+    return renderer.getTextAdvanceX(fontId, word.c_str(), style);
   }
 
   std::string sanitized = word;
@@ -47,7 +49,7 @@ uint16_t measureWordWidth(const GfxRenderer& renderer, const int fontId, const s
   if (appendHyphen) {
     sanitized.push_back('-');
   }
-  return renderer.getTextWidth(fontId, sanitized.c_str(), style);
+  return renderer.getTextAdvanceX(fontId, sanitized.c_str(), style);
 }
 
 }  // namespace
diff --git a/lib/Epub/Epub/blocks/TextBlock.cpp b/lib/Epub/Epub/blocks/TextBlock.cpp
index ac105caa..1ace7283 100644
--- a/lib/Epub/Epub/blocks/TextBlock.cpp
+++ b/lib/Epub/Epub/blocks/TextBlock.cpp
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ void TextBlock::render(const GfxRenderer& renderer, const int fontId, const int
       if (w.size() >= 3 && static_cast<uint8_t>(w[0]) == 0xE2 && static_cast<uint8_t>(w[1]) == 0x80 &&
           static_cast<uint8_t>(w[2]) == 0x83) {
         const char* visiblePtr = w.c_str() + 3;
-        const int prefixWidth = renderer.getTextAdvanceX(fontId, "\xe2\x80\x83");
+        const int prefixWidth = renderer.getTextAdvanceX(fontId, "\xe2\x80\x83", currentStyle);
         const int visibleWidth = renderer.getTextWidth(fontId, visiblePtr, currentStyle);
         startX = wordX + prefixWidth;
         underlineWidth = visibleWidth;
diff --git a/lib/GfxRenderer/GfxRenderer.cpp b/lib/GfxRenderer/GfxRenderer.cpp
index 21234483..1c7fd986 100644
--- a/lib/GfxRenderer/GfxRenderer.cpp
+++ b/lib/GfxRenderer/GfxRenderer.cpp
@@ -722,17 +722,17 @@ int GfxRenderer::getScreenHeight() const {
   return HalDisplay::DISPLAY_WIDTH;
 }
 
-int GfxRenderer::getSpaceWidth(const int fontId) const {
+int GfxRenderer::getSpaceWidth(const int fontId, const EpdFontFamily::Style style) const {
   const auto fontIt = fontMap.find(fontId);
   if (fontIt == fontMap.end()) {
     LOG_ERR("GFX", "Font %d not found", fontId);
     return 0;
   }
 
-  return fontIt->second.getGlyph(' ', EpdFontFamily::REGULAR)->advanceX;
+  return fontIt->second.getGlyph(' ', style)->advanceX;
 }
 
-int GfxRenderer::getTextAdvanceX(const int fontId, const char* text) const {
+int GfxRenderer::getTextAdvanceX(const int fontId, const char* text, const EpdFontFamily::Style style) const {
   const auto fontIt = fontMap.find(fontId);
   if (fontIt == fontMap.end()) {
     LOG_ERR("GFX", "Font %d not found", fontId);
@@ -743,7 +743,7 @@ int GfxRenderer::getTextAdvanceX(const int fontId, const char* text) const {
   int width = 0;
   const auto& font = fontIt->second;
   while ((cp = utf8NextCodepoint(reinterpret_cast<const uint8_t**>(&text)))) {
-    width += font.getGlyph(cp, EpdFontFamily::REGULAR)->advanceX;
+    width += font.getGlyph(cp, style)->advanceX;
   }
   return width;
 }
diff --git a/lib/GfxRenderer/GfxRenderer.h b/lib/GfxRenderer/GfxRenderer.h
index 4054e15a..68364499 100644
--- a/lib/GfxRenderer/GfxRenderer.h
+++ b/lib/GfxRenderer/GfxRenderer.h
@@ -110,8 +110,8 @@ class GfxRenderer {
                         EpdFontFamily::Style style = EpdFontFamily::REGULAR) const;
   void drawText(int fontId, int x, int y, const char* text, bool black = true,
                 EpdFontFamily::Style style = EpdFontFamily::REGULAR) const;
-  int getSpaceWidth(int fontId) const;
-  int getTextAdvanceX(int fontId, const char* text) const;
+  int getSpaceWidth(int fontId, EpdFontFamily::Style style = EpdFontFamily::REGULAR) const;
+  int getTextAdvanceX(int fontId, const char* text, EpdFontFamily::Style style) const;
   int getFontAscenderSize(int fontId) const;
   int getLineHeight(int fontId) const;
   std::string truncatedText(int fontId, const char* text, int maxWidth,