Formatting characters and the Character panel

Use the Character panel to format characters. If text is selected, changes you make in the Character panel affect only the selected text. If no text is selected, changes you make in the Character panel affect the selected text layers and the text layer’s selected Source Text keyframes, if any exist. If no text is selected and no text layers are selected, the changes you make in the Character panel become the new defaults for the next text entry.

  • To display the Character panel, choose Window > Character; or, with a type tool selected, click the panel button  in the Tools panel.

    To open the Character and Paragraph panels automatically when a type tool is active, select Auto-Open Panels in the Tools panel.

  • To reset Character panel values to the default values, choose Reset Character from the Character panel menu.

After Effects doesn't provide a character style for underlining text, but you can underline text with a variety of other graphical elements. Possibilities include using a shape layer containing a path with a stroke, applying a stroke to an open mask, using the Write-on Effect, and using an animated series of tightly spaced (kerned) underscore or dash characters. For a discussion of why underlining is considered bad typographic form and how you can create underlines in After Effects, see this post on the Creative COW After Effects forum.