30-seconds-of-code/pretty-text-underline.md at 0971e0f45b9aa8895b93b8f00050e724ff99a79c

Files

atomiks 0971e0f45b Use Arial and 0.98em

2018-03-02 20:08:04 +10:00

2.7 KiB

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Pretty text underline

A nicer alternative to text-decoration: underline where descenders do not clip the underline. Natively implemented as text-decoration-skip-ink: auto but it has less control over the underline.

HTML

<p class="pretty-text-underline">Pretty text underline without clipping descending letters.</p>

CSS

.pretty-text-underline {
  font-family: Arial, sans-serif;
  display: inline;
  font-size: 18px;
  text-shadow: 1px 1px 0 #f5f6f9,
    -1px 1px 0 #f5f6f9,
    -1px -1px 0 #f5f6f9,
    1px -1px 0 #f5f6f9;
  background-image: linear-gradient(90deg, currentColor 100%, transparent 100%);
  background-position: 0 0.98em;
  background-repeat: repeat-x;
  background-size: 1px 1px;
}
.pretty-text-underline::-moz-selection {
  background-color: rgba(0, 150, 255, 0.3);
  text-shadow: none;
}
.pretty-text-underline::selection {
  background-color: rgba(0, 150, 255, 0.3);
  text-shadow: none;
}

Demo

Pretty text underline without clipping descending letters.

Explanation

text-shadow: ... has 4 values with offsets that cover a 4x4 px area to ensure the underline has a "thick" shadow that covers the line where descenders clip it. Use a color that matches the background. For a larger font, use a larger px size.
background-image: linear-gradient(...) creates a 90deg gradient with the current text color (currentColor).
The background-* properties size the gradient as 1x1px at the bottom and repeats it along the x-axis.
The ::selection pseudo selector ensures the text shadow does not interfere with text selection.

Browser support

⚠️ The distance of the underline from the text depends on the internal metrics of a font, so you must ensure everyone sees the same font (i.e. no system fonts which will change based on the OS).

2.7 KiB Raw Blame History