Underlined text field in a fillable form

Question

Is there a way to make an underlined text field in a fillable form?

I am using the hyperref package to make a fillable form but I would also like to give the option of printing out the form and filling it by hand. For the later, a line is helpful to serve as guide for the pen.

This

\TextField[name=firstname,width=5cm,charsize=11pt]{First Name}

gives an empty box and I cannot find an easy way to underline this box.

Welcome to TeX.SX. – Claudio Fiandrino Mar 09 '13 at 13:01 — Claudio Fiandrino, Mar 09 '13 at 13:01

score 13 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 09 '13 at 14:50

13

The printing of the field is controlled by \MakeTextField whose default definition is equivalent to

\newcommand{MakeTextField}[2]{\vbox to #2{\hbox to #1{\hfill}\vfill}}

Replacing the inside \hfill with an \hrulefill produces a horizontal line, but because of the placing of the \vfill these will be at the top of the box. Moving the placement of \vfill gives a line at the bottom via

\renewcommand{\MakeTextField}[2]{{\vbox to #2{\vfill\hbox to #1{\hrulefill}}}}

You will probably want to adjust the colour to black (rather than the gray I get as default):

Sample output

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{hyperref,xcolor}

\renewcommand{\MakeTextField}[2]{{\vbox to #2{\vfill\hbox to #1{\hrulefill}}}}

\begin{document}
\begin{Form}
  \TextField[name=firstname,width=5cm,charsize=11pt,color=black]{First Name}
\end{Form}
\end{document}

answered Mar 09 '13 at 14:50

Andrew Swann

95,762

Strangely, this doesn't seem to do anything in pdflatex, though it does give lines in xelatex. You wouldn't know why that is, would you? – leftaroundabout Apr 01 '15 at 13:43
The above sample is pdflatex, so I guess it is an April fool. – Andrew Swann Apr 08 '15 at 12:23
This also does not work for me on a recent version of pdflatex (but works fine with xelatex). It results in an overfull vbox as well. – Apr 27 '19 at 16:12
@SamWhited Still working fine for me (pdflatex an a mac, texlive 2018). Perhaps you should make a new post with your set-up details. – Andrew Swann Apr 28 '19 at 16:19
I had to set the backgroundcolor={} so I could see the line. – n314159 Jul 15 '22 at 16:25

Underlined text field in a fillable form

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