How to Break Text-Underlining within a Paragraph without the Soul Package

Question

Consider the code:

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{soul}
\begin{document}
\thispagestyle{empty}
\large
How may I do this without the \textit{soul} package?\[7pt]
\ul{Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking;} 
\end{document}

which produces

QUESTION: How may I do this (line-break the underlining within a paragraph) without using the soul package?

Thank you.

"How do I do what a package does without the package?" Either write a replacement, or use an alternate package. The former is quite hard in this case. For the latter, there's lua-ul if you use LuaTeX. But, you could tell us at least why "without soul". — gusbrs, Jul 12 '22 at 15:36
Try \usepackage{ulem} and \uline{<text>} as an alternative. — Simon Dispa, Jul 12 '22 at 15:40
@SimonDispa That seems to do the job; but the paragraph justification in the MWE seems to be thrown off. — DDS, Jul 12 '22 at 16:03
you need some macros, you can copy the content of soul.sty to your preamble, but why? — David Carlisle, Jul 12 '22 at 16:03
Underfull \hbox (badness 10000) in paragraph at lines 8--9 :( — David Carlisle, Jul 12 '22 at 16:04
@DavidCarlisle I have used this package in the past; I don't remember specifically what the issue(s) were, but whenever possible I try not to use it, rather than risk having a conflict with another package that does not result in an error---but causes unexpected output. — DDS, Jul 12 '22 at 16:10
any code that underlines paragraph text is going to be highly invasive and clash with other macros in the document. "avoiding soul" won't change that. — David Carlisle, Jul 12 '22 at 16:21
Your best bet really is lua-ul if you use LuaLaTeX (just like @gusbrs already noted). Else your options boil down to ulem (no automatic hyphenation, manual hyphenation with \- works), soul (can break depending on content), or some TikZ solution or similar (assumes equally spaced lines, if that holds true is pretty good, go search on this very site). — Skillmon, Jul 12 '22 at 17:29
See https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/126291/list-of-underlining-packages-pros-and-cons — Steven B. Segletes, Jul 13 '22 at 13:32

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 13 '22 at 14:07

Underlining in a manuscript signified to the printer to set the text in italics.

On a typewriter, this underlining was done by back-spacing and typing an underscore.

Greater emphasis (bold, say) could be signified by turning the platen half a "line" space upwards and typing an equals signs.

Those who had two-colour ink ribbons could use red, for greatest emphasis (=bold italics).

The effect is not nearly so striking in the case of non-monospaced fonts, though.

Ragged right:

MWE

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{soul}
\usepackage{xparse}
\ExplSyntaxOn
\cs_set:Npn \fc_funcunderline:n #1 {
% 1=character


\tl_if_blank:eTF
        { #1 }
        {
        \tl_set:Nn \l_tmpc_tl { \c_space_token }
        }
%   else:
    {
        \tl_set:Nn \l_tmpc_tl {
                #1 
                \llap {
                \g_tmpa_tl
                }
        }
    }
    \tl_use:N \l_tmpc_tl

}
%-------------------- Underliner
\NewDocumentCommand \ull { o m } {
% 1=character to use as marker
% 2=text
                \IfNoValueTF { #1 } 
                        { \tl_gset:Nn \g_tmpa_tl { _ } } 
                        { \tl_gset:Nn \g_tmpa_tl { #1 } }
        \tl_set:Nn \l_tmpa_tl { #2 }

    \group_begin:               
        \ttfamily
        \exp_args:Nx
        \str_map_function:nN 
                { \l_tmpa_tl }
                \fc_funcunderline:n
    \group_end:             


}
\ExplSyntaxOff
\begin{document}
\thispagestyle{empty}
\large
How may I do this without the \textit{soul} package?
\colorbox{green!5}{\parbox{\textwidth}{\quad Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking;x.}}
\colorbox{red!5}{\vtop{\ul{Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking;x.}}}
\raggedright
\paragraph{Emphasis}
\ull{Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking;x.}
\paragraph{Greater Emphasis}
\ull[\raisebox{-1.4ex}{=}]{Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking;x.}
\paragraph{Greatest Emphasis}
\ull[\raisebox{-1.4ex}{\textcolor{red}{=}}]{Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking;x.}
\paragraph{Other}
\ull[\raisebox{-1.1ex}{{\tiny x}}]{Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking;x.}
\end{document}

\llaping the spaces gives this effect:

MWE

\documentclass{book}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{soul}
\usepackage{xparse}
\ExplSyntaxOn
\cs_set:Npn \fc_funcunderline:n #1 {
% 1=character


\tl_if_blank:eTF
        { #1 }
        {
        \tl_set:Nn \l_tmpc_tl { \c_space_token              \llap {
                \g_tmpa_tl
                }
}
        }
%   else:
    {
        \tl_set:Nn \l_tmpc_tl {
                #1 
                \llap {
                \g_tmpa_tl
                }
        }
    }
    \tl_use:N \l_tmpc_tl

}
%-------------------- Underliner
\NewDocumentCommand \ull { o m } {
% 1=character to use as marker
% 2=text
                \IfNoValueTF { #1 } 
                        { \tl_gset:Nn \g_tmpa_tl { _ } } 
                        { \tl_gset:Nn \g_tmpa_tl { #1 } }
        \tl_set:Nn \l_tmpa_tl { #2 }

    \group_begin:               
        \ttfamily
        \exp_args:Nx
        \str_map_function:nN 
                { \l_tmpa_tl }
                \fc_funcunderline:n
    \group_end:             


}
\ExplSyntaxOff
\begin{document}
\thispagestyle{empty}
\large
How may I do this without the \textit{soul} package?
\colorbox{green!5}{\parbox{\textwidth}{\quad Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking;x.}}
\colorbox{red!5}{\vtop{\ul{Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking;x.}}}
\raggedright
\paragraph{Emphasis}
\ull{Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking;x.}
\paragraph{Greater Emphasis}
\ull[\raisebox{-1.4ex}{=}]{Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking;x.}
\paragraph{Greatest Emphasis}
\ull[\raisebox{-1.4ex}{\textcolor{red}{=}}]{Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking;x.}
\paragraph{Other}
\ull[\raisebox{-1.1ex}{{\tiny x}}]{Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking;x.}
\paragraph{rule}
\ull[\raisebox{-1.0ex}{\rule{1.2ex}{1.2pt}}]{Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking; Text underlining with linebreaking;x.}
\end{document}

Non-monospaced:

Conclusion: could be possible.

A thinner rule, slightly higher, would be the way to go, say.

How to Break Text-Underlining within a Paragraph without the Soul Package

1 Answers1