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How to Remove Underline from Link in HTML: Your Ultimate Guide

By Cristian G. Guasch •  Updated: 09/18/23 •  7 min read

If you’ve been wrestling with HTML and CSS, wondering how to remove that persistent underline from your links, you’re not alone. I’ve seen this scenario play out many times – a well-designed webpage suddenly looks cluttered and chaotic because of underlined hyperlinks. So, let’s tackle this issue head-on.

First things first, the underline in hyperlinks is not an enemy; it’s a default styling attribute provided by browsers to signify an active link. It plays a crucial role in enhancing website usability and accessibility. However, there might be situations where you’d want to alter this default style for aesthetic reasons or design consistency.

In today’s post, I’ll guide you through the process of removing underlines from links using simple CSS techniques. Whether you’re a novice dabbling in web design or an experienced developer looking for a quick refresher, stick around as we delve into the world of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) together.

Let’s delve into the heart of web design: HTML and CSS. These two languages are foundational tools for anyone interested in creating or altering websites.

HTML, short for HyperText Markup Language, is all about structure. It’s the skeleton that gives every webpage its basic shape and form. When you want to add a header, create tables, or insert links on your page, I bet HTML will be your best friend.

Take a look at this simple example:

<a href="www.example.com">This is a link</a>

In this line of code, <a> is an HTML tag used to define a hyperlink (the underline under text). The “href” attribute specifies the URL of the page the link goes to.

Now let’s talk about CSS – Cascading Style Sheets. If HTML is the skeleton of a webpage, then CSS would definitely be its wardrobe. It’s responsible for how elements on a page appear visually; colors, fonts, layouts – they’re all controlled by CSS.

Ever wondered how to remove that pesky underline from hyperlinks? You guessed it right! It can be done using CSS! Here’s an example:

a {
  text-decoration: none;
}

This snippet simply tells your browser not to apply any decoration (like underlines) to text within <a> tags.

It seems that we’ve just scratched the surface here but don’t worry. We’ll dive deeper into these concepts as our discussion progresses. From differentiating inline from block elements in HTML to mastering specificity in CSS rulesets – there’s much more waiting ahead!

So stay tuned because understanding these basics will help us unravel more complex aspects such as responsive design or JavaScript integration down the lane.

Diving headfirst into the world of HTML, you’ll soon realize that hyperlinks are a fundamental part. They’re the threads that connect web pages together, allowing users to navigate through the vast digital universe with just a simple click.

To create a hyperlink in HTML, we use the anchor tag <a>. Here’s an example:

<a href="https://www.example.com">Click me</a>

In this snippet, href is an attribute specifying the destination URL and “Click me” serves as clickable text. By default, browsers underline hyperlinked texts for easy identification. But what if you want to remove that underline?

CSS comes to our aid here. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is used alongside HTML to spruce up your webpage’s aesthetics and layout. To remove that pesky underline from your link, you’d need to set the text-decoration property in CSS to none. Here’s how it would look:

<a href="https://www.example.com" style="text-decoration: none;">No Underline</a>

In this case, we’ve added inline CSS directly into our HTML element using the style attribute.

But what about multiple links? Well then, it’s more efficient and cleaner to use an external or internal stylesheet. For instance:

a {
  text-decoration: none;
}

The above code will apply this styling rule globally across all anchor tags on your page.

Remember though – while removing underlines may make hyperlinks blend better with your design aesthetic; they also serve as visual cues for users identifying clickable elements on websites. So be sure not overdo it!

Let’s face it, we’ve all been there. You’re working on a webpage, everything is looking great, and then you notice those pesky underlined links. It’s not that they’re bad per se. In fact, they’re a classic part of web design, helping users identify clickable text. But sometimes, for aesthetic reasons or for the sake of clean design, you might want to remove these underlines.

Firstly, here’s the basic code snippet that brings this issue to life:

<a href="https://www.example.com">This is an underlined link</a>

The underline appears by default in most browsers when we use the <a> tag for hyperlinks. The key to removing it lies in cascading style sheets (CSS), a powerful tool used for controlling the appearance of HTML elements.

A common method to get rid of underlines from links involves using CSS’s text-decoration property and setting its value to none. Here’s how you can do it:

<a href="https://www.example.com" style="text-decoration: none;">This is no longer an underlined link</a>

But what if you’ve multiple links on your page? You don’t want to go through each one manually adding ‘style’ attributes! That’s where CSS stylesheets come into play. We can define our ‘no underline’ rule once and apply it across all the <a> tags:

<style>
    a {
        text-decoration: none;
    }
</style>

<a href="https://www.example.com">Another link without an underline</a>

Easy peasy! Now all your links will appear without those notorious lines beneath them!

However, remember that while aesthetics are important, user experience should never be compromised. If removing underlines makes links less recognizable to users, consider using other stylistic attributes like color or font weight to indicate clickable text. After all, the goal is to make your webpage not only pretty but also user-friendly!

I’ll bet you’ve seen this before: you’re designing a sleek and modern webpage, but those pesky underlined hyperlinks are throwing off your design aesthetic. Don’t fret, it’s actually quite simple to remove that underline. Let me guide you through the process.

First things first, let’s take a look at an example of what we’re dealing with. Here’s what a typical hyperlink would look like in HTML:

<a href="https://example.com">This is a link</a>

By default, most web browsers will display this link as underlined text. But we don’t want that! So how do we get rid of it?

CSS comes to our rescue here – specifically the text-decoration property. The beauty of CSS is that it allows us to alter the appearance of elements on our page without changing their functionality.

Here’s how you can apply this property directly into your HTML file:

<a href="https://example.com" style="text-decoration:none;">This is a link without underline</a>

In the above snippet, I’ve added an inline style attribute specifying text-decoration: none;. This tells the browser not to add any decoration (like an underline) to the linked text.

But perhaps there are numerous links on your webpage and adding inline styles for each might be cumbersome. That’s where external CSS files come in handy!

In your CSS file, you’d write something like this:

a {
  text-decoration: none;
}

That single block of code wipes out underlines for all links across your entire website! You see how powerful CSS can be?

Of course, keep in mind that removing underlines from links alters one aspect of their visibility – so ensure that they are still clearly identifiable as clickable items.

In conclusion, removing underlines from links in HTML is a piece of cake once you understand how to harness the power of CSS. Whether you prefer inline styles or external CSS files, the choice is yours. Happy coding!

Cristian G. Guasch

Hey! I'm Cristian Gonzalez, I created HTML Easy to help you learn HTML easily and fast.

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