Custom Underlining

Question

I am trying to define three commands, say \wave, \underdots and \jagged such that \wave{hello} produces the word hello, with a wave underline it. Similarly, \jagged{hello} produces the word hello, with a jagged underline, and \underdots{word} produces a word with \circ-like symbols underneath it.

Hopefully, the commands would be able to adapt to variable-length text.

I don't even know where to get started with something like this.

Answer 1

^{_{I actually copied most of this from an answer I posted some days ago here. Shame!}}

Using ulem (plus a tiny little bit of code to modify it ;)

\documentclass[a4paper,11pt]{article}
\usepackage{ulem}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{xparse}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{tikzducks}
\usepackage{tikzmarmots}

\ExplSyntaxOn
\keys_define:nn { uline } {
  ,text   .code:n       = \cs_set:Nn \uline_text: { #1 }
  ,pre    .dim_set:N    = \l_uline_kern_pre
  ,pre    .initial:n    = 0.1em
  ,pos    .dim_set:N    = \l_uline_kern_pos
  ,pos    .initial:n    = 0.04em
  ,depth  .dim_set:N    = \l_uline_depth
  ,depth  .initial:n    = 0.08ex
}
\NewDocumentCommand{\SetULine}{ m }
  { \keys_set:nn { uline } { #1 } }
\cs_new:Npn \uline_text: { . }
\NewDocumentCommand\ULine
  { o }
  {
    \c_group_begin_token
    \IfValueT { #1 }
      { \keys_set:nn { uline } { #1 } }
    \use:c { UL@setULdepth }
    \markoverwith
      {
       \group_begin:
         \dim_add:Nn \ULdepth { \l_uline_depth }
         \box_move_down:nn { \ULdepth }
           {
             \hbox:n {
               \tex_kern:D \l_uline_kern_pre \scan_stop:
               \uline_text:
               \tex_kern:D \l_uline_kern_pos \scan_stop:
             }
           }
       \group_end:
      }
    \ULon
  }
\ExplSyntaxOff
\NewDocumentCommand\wave{}
  {%
    \ULine[%
      text = {\tikz[scale=0.01,very thin]\draw [variable=\x,domain=0:360,xscale=0.02,smooth] plot (\x,{cos(\x)});},
      pre = -0.11pt,
      pos = -0.11pt,
      depth = 0.05ex,
    ]%
  }
\NewDocumentCommand\jagged{}
  {%
    \ULine[%
      text = {\tikz[scale=0.03,very thin]\draw [variable=\x,domain=0:9,xscale=0.8,samples=10] plot (\x,{mod(\x,2)});},
      pre = -0.9pt,
      pos = -0.0pt,
      depth = 0.05ex,
    ]%
  }
\NewDocumentCommand\underdots{}
  {%
    \ULine[%
      text = {\scalebox{0.25}{$\circ$}},
      pre = 0.00pt,
      pos = 0.00pt,
      depth = 0.05ex,
    ]%
  }

\begin{document}
\pagenumbering{gobble}

Normal text hello there more text.

Normal text \wave{hello there} more text.

Normal text \jagged{hello there} more text.

Normal text \underdots{hello there} more text.

Normal text \ULine[text={\tikz[scale=0.05]\duck;},pre=-0.05em]{hello there} more text.

Normal text \ULine[text={\tikz[scale=0.10]\marmot;},pre=-0.05em,depth=1ex]{hello there} more text.

\end{document}