Font Effects (Oblique, 'Bold', etc)

Hello all,

If I remember correctly, GD simply passes through most (if not all) of 
its text handling to FreeType. I also know that FreeType can't magically 
italicize text, but can slant (oblique) it.

Does GD have any interface to tell FreeType to perform this operation 
(imageFTtext ?) Similarly, are there any good practices to make text 
bold when you don't actually have a Bold TTF (printing text twice, etc)?

Thanks for any insight you can provide. :)
-Jason