GREP underline effect in different text sizes

[akidaniel]

I have a price with a discount percentage made with a Grep Style applied to:

\s\-.+\%\s

The character style has an underline 27pt thick with a rounded stroke to mimic a sticker:

Now, I want to make the % symbol smaller, but when I reduce the character size by points, h/v scaling or sub-script, the underline effect disappears. When reducing the thickness, the underline shows again but only on the figure, leaving the % clear:

Any solution?

[jmlevy]

Instead of using a rule, I suggest you another way: insert a bullet at tte beginning before the minus sign and use a different point size, baseline shift and kerning to achieve this result.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

What if you do % as sub / super script? 

[akidaniel]

It doesn't work, it seems that every way to make the % smaller breaks the underlying

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Your 2nd screenshot looks like % is completely losing applied CharStyle? 

[akidaniel]

Only the underline, I changed the color in the screenshot so that it is visible, the character is originally white

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

What I meant - it looks like CharStyle is only applied to "-25"?

[akidaniel]

Yes

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Then how can you expect it to "cover" % sign? 

[jmlevy]

@Robert at ID-Tasker It works very well, using the way I suggest it.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Robert at ID-Tasker It works very well, using the way I suggest it.

By @jmlevy

I wasn't questioning your solution. 

[akidaniel]

The style is applied to 

\s\-\d\d\%\s

[Thunder-Lightning]

Try using another GREP style in the same paragraph style to apply another character style to reduce the font size of the %.

[akidaniel]

Already tried, it doesn't work, even changing the GREPS order

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Can you share your INDD document? Just one TF with an example of this text. 

[akidaniel]

I can't find how to edit the question to attach it there

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Just attach it to your next reply. 

Or edit your previous message - click on "..." after "Translate":

 

[akidaniel]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DanFbfAt30R_Abl-voO18XYmTNaUqIXI/view?usp=drive_link

[Thunder-Lightning]

I have tried to manually apply the underline and baseline shift + font size change and I got this:

The underline get shifted up as well.

So if you reduced the underline weight in the % STICKER character style to quite small, the underline will appear again but shifted up.

In conclusion, with this method, either with GREP style or manually adjustment, once the font size or baseline shift value is changed it will break the underline.

I can't think of any other method for now.

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

No idea how big your original file is - but it must be pretty slow to work with - with so many GREP styles??

[akidaniel]

🤔 This one is not that big, but I use to work with a lot of styles + GREP. I don't perceive slowness for that reason.

[jmlevy]

Why don't you use my solution? In my exemple there are no styles but it's very easy to create GREP styles to automate the process.

[Thunder-Lightning]

The position of the circle to the start of the text frame varies, with different dollar amounts, so your suggested method doesn't work in this case. 

[akidaniel]

The problem I have with this solution is that the prices are in a cell within a table. This cannot be modified, the rest of the cells contain product characteristics. The bullet's height & line height are so large that it does not allow the entire price to fit in the cell (height and width). I would have to create countless new conditions in the style to make it work, it's not worth it.

[akidaniel]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DanFbfAt30R_Abl-voO18XYmTNaUqIXI/view?usp=sharing