This template works like {{Italic title}}, except that it contains a numerical parameter which causes a particular number of characters at the beginning of the title not to be italicized. (This is useful in ship articles, where the name of the ship should be italicized, but the prefix such as "HMS" should not.)

The next character after the prefix of the specified length must be a space.

Examples:

NB This is used as a subtemplate of {{Infobox ship begin}}.