Adobe InDesign: Custom Underlines
By Barb Binder
Underlines are one of things that can identify you as new to design and layout. Originally a proofreader’s mark for italics, underlines took on a life of their own during the typewriter years, when they were one of the only ways one could emphasize text. In professionally typeset documents, you are very unlikely to see underlines used for emphasis; instead you might see italics, a weight change, a color change or some combination of the above. In a nutshell, you really don’t want to use underlines in your printed documentation as a form of emphasis.
Ok, so why, you must be wondering, is this the first of two blog posts devoted to underlining in InDesign? The answer is that because custom underlines can do some pretty cool things that go way beyond solid black lines that underscore text.
- Open up a document with some sample text to play with.
- Select a couple of random words, and apply underlining by clicking on the Underline button on the Control Panel.
- It’s not very attractive is it? It’s pretty darn easy to customize the underlines though, so that transition from boring to fun. Start by reselecting one of the underlined words, and then hold the Alt/Opt button as you click on the Underline button again in the Control panel. Look at that! A dialog box opens up, with underline controls:
- Turn on the Preview button and then play with the Weight, Offset and Text Color options. It gets better when you pick a more interesting underline like Wavy.
- Still not exciting enough? How about if you try out the Easter Egg rules we added in Adobe InDesign: Creating New Stroke Styles?
A final thought. You may love the lights or the waves, but your boss might not. You can save the underline as a character style, and if you get the kibosh on the lights, you can always just double click the character style, navigate to the Underline Options and try something more restrained, like, uh…Feet!
Still want more info on underlines? Check out how to customize underlines to highlight text.
