Strikethrough in LaTeX

Use the soul or ulem package for strikethrough text in LaTeX.

Quick Answer

latex
\usepackage{soul}  % in preamble

\st{This text is struck through.}

Option 1: soul Package

The soul package provides \st{} (strikethrough), plus \ul{} (underline) and \hl{} (highlight).

latex
\usepackage{soul}

\st{deleted text}       % strikethrough
\ul{underlined text}    % underline (robust version)
\hl{highlighted text}   % yellow highlight

Option 2: ulem Package

The ulem package offers more strikethrough variants. By default it also replaces \emph with underlining — use normalem option to prevent that.

latex
\usepackage[normalem]{ulem}

\sout{standard strikethrough}
\xout{crossed out (hatched)}
\uwave{wavy underline}
\uuline{double underline}

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Colored Strikethrough

Combine soul with xcolor to color the strikethrough line.

latex
\usepackage{soul, xcolor}

% Set color of the strikethrough line:
\setulcolor{red}
\setstcolor{red}

\st{deleted in red}

Track-Changes Style

For academic revision markup (deleted text in red, added text in blue), combine color and strikethrough:

latex
\usepackage[normalem]{ulem}
\usepackage{xcolor}

\newcommand{\del}[1]{\textcolor{red}{\sout{#1}}}
\newcommand{\ins}[1]{\textcolor{blue}{#1}}

The result is \del{wrong} \ins{correct}.

Related Topics

Underline Text →Bold Text →Text Color →Italic Text →

More LaTeX Topics

Bold TextItalic TextUnderline TextFont SizeText ColorText AlignmentHyperlinksSectionsTable of ContentsNew PageNew LineMarginsLine SpacingPage NumbersHeaders & FootersMinipageTablesFigures & ImagesListsEquationsFractionsSquare RootSubscript & SuperscriptSummationIntegralMatrixGreek LettersArrowsTilde (~)Delta (δ, Δ)Hash (#)BibliographyCross-ReferencesFootnotes