This answer provides a fantastic "ragged text highlight". Unfortunately I'm getting a weird glitch with it:
I have literally taken the source code from the link and replaced the material between \begin{document}
and \end{document}
with
{replacing} \highlight{$g$} {by} \highlight{$g^{-1}$},
The MWE is however long because the original code is long:
\documentclass{minimal}
\usepackage{soul}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}
\usetikzlibrary{decorations.pathmorphing}
\makeatletter
\newcommand{\defhighlighter}[3][]{%
\tikzset{every highlighter/.style={color=#2, fill opacity=#3, #1}}%
}
\defhighlighter{yellow}{.5}
\newcommand{\highlight@DoHighlight}{
\fill [ decoration = {random steps, amplitude=1pt, segment length=15pt}
, outer sep = -15pt, inner sep = 0pt, decorate
, every highlighter, this highlighter ]
($(begin highlight)+(0,8pt)$) rectangle ($(end highlight)+(0,-3pt)$) ;
}
\newcommand{\highlight@BeginHighlight}{
\coordinate (begin highlight) at (0,0) ;
}
\newcommand{\highlight@EndHighlight}{
\coordinate (end highlight) at (0,0) ;
}
\newdimen\highlight@previous
\newdimen\highlight@current
\DeclareRobustCommand*\highlight[1][]{%
\tikzset{this highlighter/.style={#1}}%
\SOUL@setup
%
\def\SOUL@preamble{%
\begin{tikzpicture}[overlay, remember picture]
\highlight@BeginHighlight
\highlight@EndHighlight
\end{tikzpicture}%
}%
%
\def\SOUL@postamble{%
\begin{tikzpicture}[overlay, remember picture]
\highlight@EndHighlight
\highlight@DoHighlight
\end{tikzpicture}%
}%
%
\def\SOUL@everyhyphen{%
\discretionary{%
\SOUL@setkern\SOUL@hyphkern
\SOUL@sethyphenchar
\tikz[overlay, remember picture] \highlight@EndHighlight ;%
}{%
}{%
\SOUL@setkern\SOUL@charkern
}%
}%
%
\def\SOUL@everyexhyphen##1{%
\SOUL@setkern\SOUL@hyphkern
\hbox{##1}%
\discretionary{%
\tikz[overlay, remember picture] \highlight@EndHighlight ;%
}{%
}{%
\SOUL@setkern\SOUL@charkern
}%
}%
%
\def\SOUL@everysyllable{%
\begin{tikzpicture}[overlay, remember picture]
\path let \p0 = (begin highlight), \p1 = (0,0) in \pgfextra
\global\highlight@previous=\y0
\global\highlight@current =\y1
\endpgfextra (0,0) ;
\ifdim\highlight@current < \highlight@previous
\highlight@DoHighlight
\highlight@BeginHighlight
\fi
\end{tikzpicture}%
\the\SOUL@syllable
\tikz[overlay, remember picture] \highlight@EndHighlight ;%
}%
\SOUL@
}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
{replacing} \highlight{$g$} {by} \highlight{$g^{-1}$},
\end{document}
segment length
of the decoration is longer than the width of the text segment you're trying to highlight. Settingsegment length=10pt
fixes it, but it also alters the "waviness" of the line, so maybe someone can come up with a better solution (maybe checking the length of the segment to be decorated and setting thesegment length
accordingly?) – Jake Jan 2 '13 at 19:25