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Underline & Overline Generator

Generate advanced CSS for underline and overline text effects. Control style, color, thickness, and offset. The perfect tool for web designers and developers.

Text Styling

Decoration Styling

Background Styling

Awesome Text
.stylish-text {
font-family: "Roboto", sans-serif;
font-size: 72px;
color: #2c3e50;
text-align: center;
text-decoration-line: underline;
text-decoration-style: wavy;
text-decoration-color: #e74c3c;
text-decoration-thickness: 4px;
text-underline-offset: 6px;
}
<div class="stylish-text">Awesome Text</div>

What is a CSS Underline & Overline Generator?

A CSS Underline & Overline Generator is an advanced design tool that gives you precise, granular control over the appearance of text decorations. It moves beyond the simple, non-customizable underline of the past and unlocks the full power of modern CSS properties. With this tool, you can visually adjust the line's style (solid, wavy, dotted), color, thickness, and its distance from the text. The generator then provides you with the exact CSS code to implement this custom style on your website, along with the ability to download your creation as a PNG image for mockups. It's built for web designers and developers who want to elevate their typography.

What Problem Does This Tool Solve?

For years, web designers were stuck with a boring, default underline that was impossible to style. You couldn't change its color, make it thicker, or move it away from the text. This led to designers avoiding underlines altogether or resorting to complicated CSS hacks with `border-bottom` or background images, which were clunky and not ideal for accessibility. This limitation made it difficult to create unique, branded, and aesthetically pleasing text links and headings.

Our CSS Underline & Overline Generator solves this by providing an intuitive, visual interface for the modern `text-decoration` CSS properties. It removes the need for guesswork and old-school hacks. Instead of manually tweaking CSS values in a code editor, you can use simple sliders and color pickers to design the perfect text decoration in real-time. This saves developers time, empowers designers with more creative freedom, and results in cleaner, more maintainable code.

How to Use Our Advanced Text Decorator?

Creating a beautiful, custom underline or overline is a simple, creative process:

  1. Enter Your Text: Type the text you wish to style into the input box. You can also adjust its font, size, and alignment.
  2. Design the Decoration: Use the "Decoration Styling" controls to customize the line:
    • Line: Choose `underline`, `overline`, or `line-through`.
    • Style: Select `solid`, `wavy`, `dotted`, `dashed`, or `double`.
    • Color: Use the color picker to select the exact line color.
    • Thickness: Adjust the slider to make the line thicker or thinner.
    • Offset: Use the slider to control the distance between the text and the line.
  3. Preview Your Work: The large preview area at the top updates instantly with every change you make.
  4. Export Your Result: Once you are satisfied, you have three options:
    • Copy CSS: Get the clean, ready-to-use CSS code.
    • Copy HTML: Get a ready-made HTML snippet with the style embedded.
    • Download Image: Save your creation as a transparent PNG, perfect for mockups and presentations.

Benefits of Using Our Generator

  • Total Creative Control: Finally, you can make underlines that perfectly match your brand's color palette and design aesthetic.
  • Improved Typography: A well-styled underline improves readability and adds a layer of polish to your design that default styles lack.
  • Modern, Clean Code: The tool generates code using the latest CSS properties, eliminating the need for outdated `border-bottom` hacks.
  • Rapid Prototyping: Quickly experiment with dozens of style combinations in seconds, speeding up your design workflow significantly.
  • Visual and Intuitive: No need to remember CSS property names. The sliders and dropdowns make the design process visual and easy for everyone.
  • Versatile Export Options: Whether you're a developer needing code or a designer needing a visual asset, we've got you covered.
  • Completely Free & Private: Use this professional-grade tool without any cost, and rest assured your designs are processed securely in your browser.

In-Depth Use Cases

For Web Designers

A designer is creating a style guide for a client's website. The brand uses a specific shade of orange (`#FF5733`) and has a playful, modern aesthetic. The designer uses the tool to create a link style with a `wavy`, `orange`, `2px` thick underline. They download the resulting CSS and add it to the project's stylesheet, ensuring all links on the site have a consistent, branded, and unique look.

For Frontend Developers

A developer is building a blog and wants the headings (`

` tags) to have a subtle overline effect. They use the generator to create a `solid`, `lightgray`, `1px` overline, slightly offset from the text. They copy the CSS and apply it to their `h2` elements, adding an elegant touch to the site's typography in under a minute.

For Content Creators

A content creator is making a presentation slide or a social media graphic about a sale. They want the text "50% OFF" to be visually striking. They use the tool to design a thick, red, dashed strikethrough effect. They then download the result as a transparent PNG image and import it directly into their Canva or Figma design, creating a custom graphic without needing advanced design skills.

Key Features Explained

  • `text-decoration-line`: This CSS property is controlled by our "Decoration Line" dropdown. It specifies what line should be drawn (`underline`, `overline`, `line-through`).
  • `text-decoration-style`: Controlled by the "Line Style" dropdown, this property sets the appearance of the line, such as `solid`, `wavy`, `dotted`, `dashed`, or `double`.
  • `text-decoration-color`: This property, managed by our color picker, sets the color of the decoration line, and can be completely different from the text color.
  • `text-decoration-thickness`: This allows you to set the thickness of the line in pixels, giving you control from a hairline to a thick, bold strike.
  • `text-underline-offset`: This powerful property controls the vertical distance between the text and the underline/overline. Increasing this value creates more "breathing room," which can dramatically improve legibility and style.
  • Advanced Text Styling: The tool includes full control over the text itself, including `font-family`, `font-size`, `font-weight`, `color`, and even `text-shadow` for creating a complete typographic composition.

Best Practices & Pro-Tips

  • Subtlety is Key: A thin, slightly offset underline in a brand color often looks more sophisticated than a thick, default one.
  • Ensure Contrast: Make sure there is enough color contrast between your text, your decoration line, and the background for good accessibility and readability.
  • Mind the Offset: Increasing the `text-underline-offset` is a great way to prevent the underline from clashing with the descenders of letters like 'g', 'j', and 'y'.
  • Wavy for Playfulness: A `wavy` underline is a fantastic way to add a touch of fun or to indicate a "special" link without being distracting.
  • Use for Headings: A subtle `overline` or `underline` can be a beautiful way to style headings and subheadings, adding structure and elegance to your page.

Technical Deep Dive: The Evolution of Text Decoration

The ability to finely control text decorations is a relatively new and powerful feature in CSS. For a long time, designers were limited to the `text-decoration` property, which was essentially an on/off switch. If you wanted a different color or style, you had to resort to clever but imperfect hacks. The most common was using the `border-bottom` property on an element. While this worked, it had several drawbacks: the line was tied to the element's box, not the text's baseline; it didn't gracefully handle text that wrapped onto multiple lines; and it couldn't create non-solid styles like 'wavy'.

The introduction of the `text-decoration-line`, `text-decoration-color`, `text-decoration-style`, and `text-decoration-thickness` properties changed everything. These properties, which our tool uses, gave developers direct, granular control over the decoration itself. This was a huge leap forward for web typography. Later, `text-underline-offset` was added, which was the final piece of the puzzle, allowing designers to control the vertical spacing of the line, preventing it from crashing into the text and giving it a more refined, professional appearance.

Our tool simplifies the use of these modern properties. Instead of remembering each property name and value, you can visually design your ideal text decoration and let the tool generate the clean, compliant, and modern CSS for you. This not only speeds up the development process but also encourages the use of best practices in web design.

Creative Ideas for Custom Underlines

A custom underline is more than just a line; it's a design element. Here are some creative ways to use this tool:

  • Branded Hover Effects: Create a subtle, gray underline for your links in their standard state. Then, on hover, make the underline thicker, change its color to your primary brand color, and switch the style to `solid`. This creates a dynamic and engaging user experience.
  • Highlighting Keywords: Use a `dotted` or `dashed` underline in a soft color to draw attention to specific keywords or phrases within a paragraph without the harshness of bolding.
  • Playful Headings: A `wavy` underline in a bright, contrasting color can add a sense of fun and energy to your headings, perfect for a less formal or more creative website.
  • Elegant Overlines: Use a thin, `solid` `overline` with a slight offset on your headers to create a sophisticated, magazine-like feel.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. Can I use these styles in my email signature?
Most modern email clients have poor support for advanced CSS. For email, it is safer to download your creation as a PNG image and insert that image into your signature settings.
2. Why don't these styles work when I copy and paste them into social media?
This tool generates CSS and HTML code, which only works in environments where you can write your own code (like your own website). It does not generate copy-pasteable Unicode text. For that, you would use our simpler Stylish Text Generator.
3. Are all the fonts free to use on my website?
Yes. All the fonts included in our tool are from Google Fonts, which are open-source and free to use in any personal or commercial project. You would simply need to import the font into your own website's CSS.
4. Will these CSS properties work in all web browsers?
The CSS `text-decoration` properties we use are supported by all modern web browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. They may not work in very old browsers like Internet Explorer.
5. What's the difference between this and just using `border-bottom` in CSS?
Using `border-bottom` was a common hack, but it has flaws. It doesn't work well with text that wraps onto multiple lines, and it doesn't have options like `wavy` or `dotted`. The modern `text-decoration` properties are the correct, more powerful, and standard way to style underlines.