Welcome to the next meeting of Type Addicts Anonymous. Last time we covered Step 1: admitting the problem. This time I’d like to present Step 2: resisting the urge to lecture others about bad typography.
Today I was asked to underline to a word to emphasise it; that sounds fairly innocent and inoffensive, doesn’t it? Except that using underline for emphasis is horrible.
Underlining words comes from when everyone used typewriters; there was no other way to emphasise it. These days we can use bold, italics, or even colour to attract the reader’s attention.
Using any of these options is a much better way to show emphasis. In web typography, an underline usually signifies a link. If a word is underlined, it is expected to be clickable, so by using underline for emphasis, you risk confusing and even irritating your website’s visitors.
What about print work? It doesn’t have links so why would using underline matter? Well, it just looks clumsy. Small text sizes just can’t handle an underline; when it’s printed the ink from the text and underline starts to bleed together leaving an unsightly mess. At larger sizes you can avoid this, but the underline will still look ugly.
I was working on a design destined for print when asked to use the dreaded underline. I used a different colour instead, as the font was already quite heavy so making it bold may have been too much. So far I haven’t lectured on why I don’t want to underline the text, and so far I’ve gotten away with using colour for emphasis instead. But the design isn’t approved yet, and I may still have to change the emphasis to an underline. I’d like to think not, and I hope that I can keep on resisting the urge to lecture.
Oh dear, I’ve just lectured, haven’t I? And I was doing so well, too; looks like I need to do more work on Stage 2!
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Marian D says
Ah, the dreaded underline. When I’m translating I “translate out” the underlining and replace with bold. I’m not sure what my clients make of that – they may well put all the underlines back in.
By the way, do you know the work of Robins Williams, who writes for Peachpit Press? For example, the Non-Designer’s Design Book http://www.peachpit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0321534042
fiona says
Hi Marian, it’s great to know that it’s not just us designers who are bothered by the underline. I haven’t read that one, but I’m away to check it out. Thanks for the tip!