Text decoration in CSS - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Text Decoration Styling with CSS

📖 Scenario: You are designing a simple webpage for a local bookstore. You want to make the book titles stand out by adding different text decorations like underline, overline, and line-through.

🎯 Goal: Create CSS rules to add different text decorations to three book title paragraphs: underline, overline, and line-through.

📋 What You'll Learn

Use the CSS text-decoration property

Apply underline to the first book title

Apply overline to the second book title

Apply line-through to the third book title

Use semantic HTML with <main> and <p> tags

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Text decoration is commonly used in websites to highlight links, emphasize important text, or show deleted content with line-through.

💼 Career

Knowing how to style text decorations is essential for front-end developers to create visually appealing and accessible web pages.

1

Create the HTML structure with book titles

Write the HTML code to create a <main> section containing three paragraphs with the exact texts: Book One, Book Two, and Book Three. Each paragraph should have a class: underline, overline, and line-through respectively.

CSS

Hint

Use the <p> tag with the class attribute for each book title inside the <main> tag.

2

Add CSS selectors for each text decoration class

Create CSS rules for the classes .underline, .overline, and .line-through. For now, just write the selectors with empty curly braces.

CSS

  Book One
  Book Two
  Book Three


/* Add CSS selectors below */
.underline {
  
}
.overline {
  
}
.line-through {
  
}

Hint

Write CSS selectors for each class name followed by curly braces.

3

Apply the correct text decoration styles

Inside the CSS rule for .underline, set text-decoration to underline. For .overline, set text-decoration to overline. For .line-through, set text-decoration to line-through.

CSS

  Book One
  Book Two
  Book Three


.underline {
  /* Add text-decoration underline */
}
.overline {
  /* Add text-decoration overline */
}
.line-through {
  /* Add text-decoration line-through */
}

Hint

Use the CSS property text-decoration with the correct value inside each class.

4

Add a responsive font size for better readability

Add a CSS rule for the p tag that sets the font size to 1.5rem. This will make the book titles easier to read on all devices.

CSS

  Book One
  Book Two
  Book Three


.underline {
  text-decoration: underline;
}
.overline {
  text-decoration: overline;
}
.line-through {
  text-decoration: line-through;
}

/* Add font size for all paragraphs */
p {
  
}

Hint

Use the selector p and set font-size to 1.5rem.

Practice

1. Which CSS property is used to add an underline to text?

easy

A. text-transform

B. font-style

C. line-height

D. text-decoration

Solution

1. Step 1: Identify the property for text lines

   The property text-decoration controls lines like underline, overline, and line-through on text.

2. Step 2: Confirm the underline effect

   Using text-decoration: underline; adds an underline to the text.

3. Final Answer:

   text-decoration -> Option D

4. Quick Check:

   Underline = text-decoration [OK]

Hint: Underline text with text-decoration property [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Confusing font-style with underline
• Using text-transform which changes case
• Using line-height which controls spacing

2. Which of the following is the correct syntax to add a line-through effect to text in CSS?

easy

A. text-decoration: strike;

B. text-decoration: line-through;

C. text-decoration: crossed;

D. text-decoration: overline;

Solution

1. Step 1: Recall valid text-decoration values

   The valid values for text-decoration include underline, overline, and line-through.

2. Step 2: Match the line-through effect

   The correct value to cross out text is line-through. Other options like strike or crossed are invalid.

3. Final Answer:

   text-decoration: line-through; -> Option B

4. Quick Check:

   Line-through = line-through [OK]

Hint: Use line-through for strike effect in text-decoration [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Using invalid values like strike or crossed
• Confusing overline with line-through
• Missing the colon or semicolon in syntax

3. What will be the visual effect of this CSS on a paragraph?

p { text-decoration: underline overline; }

medium

A. The paragraph text will only have an overline.

B. The paragraph text will only have an underline.

C. The paragraph text will have both an underline and an overline.

D. The paragraph text will have no decoration.

Solution

1. Step 1: Understand multiple values in text-decoration

   The text-decoration property can accept multiple values separated by spaces to combine effects.

2. Step 2: Apply underline and overline together

   Using underline overline applies both lines above and below the text simultaneously.

3. Final Answer:

   The paragraph text will have both an underline and an overline. -> Option C

4. Quick Check:

   Multiple decorations combine = both lines [OK]

Hint: Multiple text-decoration values add multiple lines [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Assuming only the first value applies
• Thinking values override each other
• Confusing overline with underline

4. Identify the error in this CSS code snippet:

h1 { text-decoration: underlined; }

medium

A. The value 'underlined' is invalid for text-decoration.

B. The property name should be 'text-decoration-line'.

C. Missing semicolon after the value.

D. The selector 'h1' is incorrect.

Solution

1. Step 1: Check valid values for text-decoration

   Valid values include underline, overline, line-through, but not underlined.

2. Step 2: Confirm property and syntax correctness

   The property text-decoration is correct and semicolon is present. The selector h1 is valid.

3. Final Answer:

   The value 'underlined' is invalid for text-decoration. -> Option A

4. Quick Check:

   Valid values only = underline, overline, line-through [OK]

Hint: Use exact values: underline, not underlined [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Adding 'd' to underline value
• Confusing property names
• Ignoring semicolon errors

5. You want to style a link so it has a red underline only when hovered, and no decoration normally. Which CSS code achieves this?

hard

A. a { text-decoration: none; } a:hover { text-decoration: underline; text-decoration-color: red; }

B. a { text-decoration: underline red; } a:hover { text-decoration: none; }

C. a { text-decoration-color: red; } a:hover { text-decoration: none; }

D. a { text-decoration: underline; } a:hover { text-decoration-color: red; }

Solution

1. Step 1: Set no decoration normally

   Use text-decoration: none; on the link to remove underline by default.

2. Step 2: Add red underline on hover

   On a:hover, add text-decoration: underline; and set text-decoration-color: red; to color the underline red.

3. Final Answer:

   a { text-decoration: none; } a:hover { text-decoration: underline; text-decoration-color: red; } -> Option A

4. Quick Check:

   None normally + red underline on hover = a { text-decoration: none; } a:hover { text-decoration: underline; text-decoration-color: red; } [OK]

Hint: Use none normally, underline + color on hover [OK]

Common Mistakes:

• Setting underline always, not only on hover
• Using text-decoration-color without underline
• Reversing hover and normal styles