How to Add Underline in Adobe InDesign: 1-Min Guide

How to Add Underline in Adobe InDesign

Updated on:

April 6, 2026

By:

Madhav Bhandari

Use this interactive demo to learn how to add an underline in Adobe InDesign.

‍

Here’s a simple and quick guide on how to add underline in Adobe InDesign:

‍

To add an underline to text in InDesign, highlight the text you want to underline.
Go to the Properties panel (usually on the right side), then under the Character section, click the 'three-dot' icon to see more options.
The underline in InDesign is represented by a capital 'T' with a line beneath it. Click this icon to see your text underlined in real time.
You have successfully added an underline to your text in InDesign.

📌 Why this matters

Adding underlines gives you precise typographic control for emphasis, citations, and interactive elements like hyperlinks. Beyond basic formatting, underlines in professional design work differently than word processors—you can customize their weight, offset, and color independently from the text.

This becomes crucial when you're matching brand guidelines or creating complex documents where underlines serve functional purposes, like indicating clickable elements in digital publications or following academic citation standards that require specific underline treatments.

Your product deserves an interactive demo

Start free

How to Use Pantone Colors in Adobe InDesign

How to Use Data Merge in Adobe InDesign

How to Use Eyedropper in Adobe InDesign