In this study, we examined the effects of background and underline on the readability of displayed text. The background was placed on every other line and the underline was done with every line of the text. The effect of adding color to the background and underline was also of primary concern. Twenty subjects were tested on their reading efficiency (i.e. time-to-read and comprehension) and subjective preference of different text format presented on a LCD. Result showed that for the background condition, the background with green format significantly decreased the time-to-read as compared to the format without any background. The results of ANOVA on comprehension and subjective preference were also consistent with this finding. For the underline condition, otherwise, the underline with yellow format yielded higher speed and better comprehension. The results imply that adding background or underlines with appropriate colors can be an additional and useful way of improving text readability.