I’m a fan of underlining hyperlinks, but there are issues: particulary underscores and descending letters.

right now i have them as italic but i want to try something else.

Try a monospace font, with non-jarring [typographic] color.

I think email addresses can be embedded in text, but any long URL should usually be: named something in the text and be given in full as a footnote; converted to a TinyURL or equivalent* if it's long and/or cryptic.

* I wouldn't rely on any ".ly" scheme though... :-/

hhp

Top to bottom: Default underline; coloured underline; offset coloured underline and no underline for descenders and underscores; offset coloured underline and white stroke around the text; underline offset to steer clear of descenders.

hod do i do underline offset to steer clear of descenders in indesign? hrant i think you have a good point about the footnotes.

If you're working with a style guide, consult that. But I usually just treat them as regular text. If you feel that this will confuse the reader, you could make them bold or italic to help visually separate them from the other text. Or you could underline, but as Frank said that can cause problems.

http://typophile.com/node/69380
http://typophile.com/node/74968

Something also here:
http://typophile.com/node/12883

> converted to a TinyURL

I'm not sure how long TInyURL (and similar services) guarantee that their links will work, so I'd be hesitant to put them in a printed document if it's going to be in use for a while.

But I agree with your general point that long URLs can be a problem in non-clickable text. For that reason I generally try to avoid printing URLs when I can, and if I must use them I try to make them as short as possible.

For example, instead of saying "go to http://www.company.com/support/support.html" say something like "go to the support section of www.company.com".

nice stuff riccard0,thank you very much.

In the top right section of the character palette there’s a menu under which you’ll find Underline Options. You can also define these settings in a character style.

thank you frode.

Won't a very low underline collide with the next line?

TinyURL only "translates" the link, so it will work as long as: the target is still around; TinyURL is still around! Some other services actually keep a copy of your target (which might sometimes be illegal I guess) so the first requirement is gone, but AFAIK they require some form of "commitment" (like money :-). You could always host a reference link on a site you control; more work, but at least the link will still be around as long as you want it. Or as long as the Internet is around. :-)

hhp

something else i want to know, should there be comma after the day of the month, for example October 3rd, 2011 or October 3rd 2011?

Yes to the comma. Unless, of course, you're European: 3 October 2011.

And I think the 'rd' is unnecessary: October 3, 2011.

I just tested what the LaTeX command \today outputs with various babel language options and here is what I got:

American: June 5, 2011
Canadian: June 5, 2011
Australian: 5 June 2011
British: 5th June 2011

Michel

From the Associated Press style guide:

• When a phrase refers to a month, day and year, set off the year with commas.
(e.g. Aug. 20, 1964, was the day they had all been waiting for.)

• When a phrase lists only a month and year, do not separate the month and the
year with commas. (e.g. February 1980 was his best month.)

I've tended to use bold italics for emails and urls. But I like Hrant's suggesetion of a monospace font. I started work on a monoline (not monospace) font with this purpose in mind, and may come back to it. I guess it just needs to contrast with the surrounding text.

From a Brit perspective, I'd write 5 June 2011.

The problem with a monospaced font for urls in running text is that usually it makes them even longer, thus increasing the risk of unwanted hyphenation.

But they're usually too long in any font, so shouldn't be in the body anyway. If one puts them as footnotes there's less reason to use a monospace font, although a font with distinct I/l/1 etc. is still very important (which of course is another reason to switch fonts when embedding in text). BTW, besides nicely marking visual contrast a monospace font is great for conveying a computery flavor.

hhp

you should all educate your people to stop making long u.r.l.s...

-bowerbird