The Tipping Point S02E01: Adding Emphasis to Text

Adding emphasis to text can be accomplished in many ways, all of which are equally valid. Except one. 

Remember this: in the name of all that’s good and holy, do not underline.

Underlining looks tacky, amateurish and just plain bad. It is, as Matthew Butterick calls it, a typewriter habit, something that could be accomplished on a typewriter easily by backing up and placing underscores under text you’d already written. When it’s the only option available to you, you’re (probably) not going to hell.

If you think that’s funny, you’re a monster. Here’s a photo of an old lady in distress because she dropped her denture:

But here’s the thing: when you have at least four other classier, more easily-readable ways to add emphasis at your disposal and you still choose to underline, don’t be surprised to wake up one day screaming because you’re boiling in an oversized cauldron, with a demon teabagging you for good measure. I’ll be there too, cheering the demon on.

Is there a case in which underlining is justified? Hyperlinks, I guess. Underlining web and email addresses or lines in a generated table of contents in PDFs is not out of the question. It still looks pretty bad, though.

Here are some ways you can add emphasis to text without debasing yourself and bringing shame upon your family, type-san:

• Use a font with heavier weight (eg. semibold or bold)

• Use small caps

• Use italics

• Change the color of the text

• Use an expanded version of the typeface

Adding emphasis is all fun and games until it’s not. The best thing I’ve ever read about adding emphasis to anything is this: “If you emphasize everything, nothing is emphasized”. Use emphasis sparingly—and definitely avoid using two methods of emphasis on the same piece of text. You don’t need to both bold and italicize that sentence, bucko!