Long underscore in LaTeX

Question

In LaTeX, how would I make a long underscore?

For example,

Name _______  Signature _______

Answer 1

As I learned from the exam class's documentation, you can do this:

\makebox[0.5\textwidth]{Name:\enspace\hrulefill}

which allows you to control how much space the entire construction takes up, rather than just the underlined part.

Answer 2

You can just \underline a \hspace:

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}
Name \underline{\hspace{3cm}}
Signature \underline{\hspace{3cm}}

\end{document}

Answer 3

You can use \rule:

\rule[<raise height>]{<width>}{<height>}}

For example \rule{2in}{.5pt} will give you the kind of thing you want.

The optional argument can be used to raise (positive value) or lower (negative value) the rule. Sometimes lowering it slightly looks better.

Answer 4

A code such as

\newcommand\blank[1]{\rule[-.2ex]{#1}{.4pt}}

in your preamble allows you to say

\blank{2cm}

instead of your complicated construction.

Answer 5

If you want a line (or rule) at the baseline of a specific length (and width), you can just use \rule{<len>}{<width>}. You can also adjust the vertical displacement (or depth) by adding an optional argument: \rule[<depth>]{<len>}{<width>}.

Here's a mock-up using an example:

\documentclass{article}
\newcommand{\uline}[1]{\rule[0pt]{#1}{0.4pt}}% Fill this blank
\begin{document}
Assume $A \subset B$.
We want to show $A \subset (A \cap B)$ and \uline{2cm}.
The first fact is true since: $A \subset B \Rightarrow$
if $x \in A$ then \uline{2cm} $\Rightarrow$
if $x \in A$ then $x \in A and B$.
The second fact is true by \uline{2cm}.

Conversly, assume \uline{2cm}.
By the first property again, $B \supset$ \uline{2cm},
so we have \uline{4cm}.
\end{document}​​​​​​​​​​​

I've defined \uline to take a single argument, fixing the others passed to \rule (width is 0.4pt and depth is 0pt). You can modify this as required, depending on the preference.

Answer 6

In ConTeXt you can use the command \thinrules. The optional parameter n outputs a particular amount of lines. Example:

\starttext

Some text \thinrules[n=1]
\blank                                                                                
Some text \thinrules[n=2]

\stoptext

The result:

Answer 7

You can also use the soul package. This has the added benefit that the underline can be of a different color, and also should be able to work across paragraph boundaries (except that there appears to be a bug, so had to add the \mbox below for now.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xcolor}%
\usepackage{soul}%

\newcommand{\UnderlineText}[2][red]{\setulcolor{#1}\ul{#2}}%

\begin{document}
    Signature \UnderlineText[blue]{\mbox{\hspace{5cm}}}
\end{document}