How to Add a Dotted Underline Beneath HTML Text

Use the following CSS codes...

text-decoration:underline;
text-decoration-style: dotted;

It's impossible without CSS. In fact, the <u> tag is simply adding text-decoration:underline to the text with the browser's built-in CSS.

Here's what you can do:

<html>
<head>
<!-- Other head stuff here, like title or meta -->

<style type="text/css">
u {    
    border-bottom: 1px dotted #000;
    text-decoration: none;
}
</style>
</head>
<!-- Body, content here -->
</html>

Without CSS, you basically are stuck with using an image tag. Basically make an image of the text and add the underline. That basically means your page is useless to a screen reader.

With CSS, it is simple.

HTML:

<u class="dotted">I like cheese</u>

CSS:

u.dotted{
  border-bottom: 1px dashed #999;
  text-decoration: none; 
}

Running Example

Example page

<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
    <style>
        u.dotted{
          border-bottom: 1px dashed #999;
          text-decoration: none; 
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <u class="dotted">I like cheese</u>
</body>
</html>

Tags:

Html

Underline