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bobs93071610
Inspiring
September 21, 2022
Answered

Underline will not display or print

  • September 21, 2022
  • 6 replies
  • 4377 views

I have one word that needs to be underlined in a sentence. The character property says it is underlined, but it does not display underline. All the other underlined text in the frame displays fine.

This line is shorter than the others. If I type extra text at the end of the line, the underline shows up when the text wraps to the next line.

Spaces don't wrap and I need a CR at the end of the line. 

How can I fix this?

Bob

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer BobLevine

You don't have enough leading in the line below. Increase it and the underline will show up.

6 replies

James Gifford—NitroPress
James Gifford—NitroPress
Legend
September 22, 2022

After some experimentation with a clean file, I find that this effect (underline disappears on single lines only) occurs only when:

 

  1. Background shading is enabled; and
  2. The leading is less than the (bottom) shading offset; and
  3. Merge borders in successive paragraphs is not enabled.

 

The background shading on the bottom of a paragraph will mask the underline if the underline extends into a defined shading offset. If the underline offset is changed (to bring the underline up into the text) it appears. If the shading offset is reduced below the underline offset, the underline reappears. If 'merge borders' is enabled, the underlines appear regardless of other settings.

 

So I am not sure if this is a bug or the three settings (shading offset, underline placement, and borders merge) interacting exactly as they should. The really simple solution is not to use paragraph shading, but place text in a shaded frame. That gets around all combinations of the problem. Second is to make sure any shading offset is small enough to not obscure the underline because it is offset into that same space. Third is to make sure leading is sufficient to bring the underline up out of the shading offset/border.

 

Weird one!

 

My thought here is that underlines are being applied at the wrong display layer (in the technical rendering of the content). Underlines (and strikethrough/overlines, probably) should be rendered on the text layer, or one immediately adjacent, but definitely above the layer used for paragraph shading and maybe borders/rules as well. (A bit hand-wavy, there, since I have no knowledge of the actual display rendering process.)

 

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    officea70105725
    officea70105725
    Participant
    December 12, 2024

    If the above is the solution, it is overly complicated and Adobe should make it simpler.

    James Gifford—NitroPress
    James Gifford—NitroPress
    Legend
    December 12, 2024

    (Assuming my guesses are in any way correct) It's just a matter of one feature interfering with another, which is not unknown in the overall set of formatting options (in many apps, not just ID). The working solution is to use the knowledge to work around it, as Adobe is unlikely to fix the quirk at any low level unless a feature request is entered and upvoted by a considerable number of users.

     

    Put another way, all features work fine by themselves. Most combinations of features work as expected. But there are some combinations, when using certain ranges of settings (line spacing, for example) that step on each others' toes. This seems to be one, and if you want the combined effects, a little effort and care to work around the limitation is how you get there.

    L
    Community Expert
    LaubenderCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 22, 2022

    What also helps:

     

    [1] Enable paragraph border in your paragraph style and set its line weight to value 0.

    Then, and only then, the already enabled option you checked can kick in:

     

    [ x ] Merge Conseceutive Borders and Shading with same Settings

     

    To the effect that all shading of all of your paragraphs is stacked behind the paragraphs and cannot obscure a given underline of a paragraph before! So there is no need to change the leading or the distance between paragraphs.

     

    Download your sample document that I edited to this effect from my Dropbox account:

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/707i3j56vdp4zgh/Underlined%20Text%20Issue-EDITED.indd?dl=1

     

    Conclusion:
    Paragraph shading of the next paragraph obscured your underline of the previous paragraph.

     

    Regards,
    Uwe Laubender
    ( Adobe Community Expert )

    L
    Community Expert
    LaubenderCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 22, 2022

    Ok. Maybe I was a bit wrong on this and what we see is a real bug with paragraph shading and underline.

    But my solution is working as far as I can see. Have to think more about it why my solution is working…

     

    Regards,
    Uwe Laubender
    ( Adobe Community Expert )

    James Gifford—NitroPress
    James Gifford—NitroPress
    Legend
    September 22, 2022

    Exactly where I'm at. The problem is obvious, but the reason it's occurring seems to be a collision of settings that really shouldn't collide.

     

    I will be experimenting when I have time and see if I can pinpoint exactly what's interfering with what. But I suspect an actual bug lies at the root of it.

     

    —

      L
      Community Expert
      LaubenderCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      September 22, 2022

      Hi @bobs93071610 ,

      please share a sample document with a text frame showing the issue.

       

      Thanks,
      Uwe Laubender
      ( Adobe Community Expert )

      B
      bobs93071610Author
      Inspiring
      September 22, 2022

      As requested, I've attached the page with the underlining issue.

      James Gifford—NitroPress
      James Gifford—NitroPress
      Legend
      September 22, 2022

      I've only had a few minutes with this, and primarily focused on the paragraph settings and creating a clean underline character style to apply in place of the spot formatting you're using (a no-no, really)... and you're right. If this paragraph style is one line, the underlines disappear.

       

      I'll look at it later in the day if someone else doesn't spot the glitch. This is really weird!

       

      ETA, 30s later: if you turn off the paragraph shading of 10% black, the problem goes away. I'd reformat the doc to use a shaded text frame or such, and take all the shading off the text. I have no idea WHY this is occurring, but that would be a better structural choice anyway.

       

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        B
        bobs93071610Author
        Inspiring
        September 22, 2022

        Thank you for the suggestions. Yes to the Underline Options. The options for all of the underlines in the frame are just alike.

        When I increase the length of the line so that it wraps to the next line, the underline appears. I take it from that that it is not an issue with the character or underline options. 

        Is there a paragraph option someplace that says not to display anything below the line if the line is the only one in the paragraph? That or a bug seems to be what I have.

        Bob

        Bill Silbert
        Community Expert
        Bill SilbertCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        September 22, 2022

        Did you check the Underline Options dialog (found under the Character Panel pull-down menu) to make sure that the underline color is matching the text color?

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