[Tex/LaTex] Changing the color of special underlines with ulem

colormacrosulem

I'm using the ulem package to produce different kinds of underlining, and want each underline style to be in a different color (so that the difference is visible whether you're viewing the document in black and white or not). The package documentation gives an example for how to define a colored version of the basic \uline command, which works just fine:

\newcommand\reduline{\bgroup\markoverwith{\textcolor{red}{\rule[-0.5ex]{2pt}{0.4pt}}}\ULon}

What I'm having trouble with is creating new commands to give the other types of underlining colors, namely \dashuline, \dotuline, and \uwave, i.e. make one of them blue, one green, etc. The definition of these commands in ulem.sty is more complex than I understand, and I'm not sure how to plug them into the above format. Other underlining packages would be theoretically fine, but I do need a variety of underline shapes, which aren't predefined in soul for example, as far as I can tell.

Best Answer

This is actually a lot easier than you may think. As the documentation suggests, just look in ulem.sty and copy and modify the definitions (starting on line 211). Just insert a color changing command in the argument to \markoverwith in the definition you want to modify and that's it.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{ulem}
\usepackage{xcolor}

\makeatletter
  \newcommand\reduline{\bgroup\markoverwith{\textcolor{red}{\rule[-0.5ex]{2pt}{0.4pt}}}\ULon}
  \UL@protected\def\blueuwave{\leavevmode \bgroup 
    \ifdim \ULdepth=\maxdimen \ULdepth 3.5\p@
    \else \advance\ULdepth2\p@ 
    \fi \markoverwith{\lower\ULdepth\hbox{\textcolor{blue}{\sixly \char58}}}\ULon}
  \UL@protected\def\yellowdotuline{\leavevmode \bgroup 
    \UL@setULdepth
    \ifx\UL@on\UL@onin \advance\ULdepth2\p@\fi
    \markoverwith{\begingroup
       %\advance\ULdepth0.08ex 
       \lower\ULdepth\hbox{\kern.06em \textcolor{yellow}{.}\kern.04em}%
       \endgroup}%
    \ULon}
  \UL@protected\def\greendashuline{\leavevmode \bgroup 
    \UL@setULdepth
    \ifx\UL@on\UL@onin \advance\ULdepth2\p@\fi
    \markoverwith{\kern.13em
    \vtop{\color{green}\kern\ULdepth \hrule width .3em}%
    \kern.13em}\ULon}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\reduline{I am underlined in red.}

\blueuwave{I am underlined with blue waves.}

\yellowdotuline{I am underlined with yellow dots.}

\greendashuline{I am underlined with green dashes.}

I am not underlined at all.

\end{document}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to color just the wave produced by the ulem package

It is highly recommended that you post a minimal example. It is possible to only color the wave part by redefining the command \uwave or by creating a new command named \redwave as you like.

\documentclass[11pt]{article} 
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{ulem}
\makeatletter
\def\uwave{\bgroup \markoverwith{\lower3.5\p@\hbox{\sixly \textcolor{red}{\char58}}}\ULon}
\font\sixly=lasy6 % does not re-load if already loaded, so no memory problem.
\makeatother
\begin{document}
  \uwave{This is a long test}
\end{document}

The ulem package uses the wiggle from the 6-pt lasy font and we just use textcolor to color it.

One could extend the above code to give it a more semantic name, as suggested by TH and also to give an optional color. The MWE below defines a command \colorwave for this purpose.

\documentclass[11pt]{article} 
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{ulem}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\makeatletter
\newcommand\colorwave[1][blue]{\bgroup \markoverwith{\lower3.5\p@\hbox{\sixly \textcolor{#1}{\char58}}}\ULon}
\font\sixly=lasy6 % does not re-load if already loaded, so no memory problem.
\makeatother
\begin{document}
 \colorwave[red]{This is a long test} \lipsum*[1].\par
 \colorwave[green]{This is a long test} \lipsum*[1]
\end{document}

enter image description here

[Tex/LaTex] Highlighting text with ulem package

One possible solution is to use a \rule with smaller width; for instance

\newcommand\hl{\bgroup\markoverwith
  {\textcolor{yellow}{\rule[-.5ex]{1pt}{2.5ex}}}\ULon}

However there are still colors covering the letter f.

Following EDIT by Steven Segletes:

Since the answerer has not logged in for a while, I will edit the answer further. The answer is on the right track, but must be reduced even further in width, to let's say 0.1pt. Here is the result, which overcomes the problem letters:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{color}
\usepackage{ulem}
\newcommand\hl{\bgroup\markoverwith
  {\textcolor{yellow}{\rule[-.5ex]{.1pt}{2.5ex}}}\ULon}
\begin{document}
This is a test \hl{Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.} text.
\end{document}

However, there still may remain a slight problem with the f, which sticks out to the right of its bounding box:

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] How to color just the wave produced by the ulem package

[Tex/LaTex] Highlighting text with ulem package

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