Source: http://jsfiddle.net/hMEHB/15/

Style specific characters

// Source: http://jsfiddle.net/hMEHB/15/

$(document).ready(function () {
    'use strict';
    var descenders = {"g": true, "j": true, "p": true, "q": true, "y": true};
    $('a').each(function (i, elem) {
        var self = $(elem),
            textNodes = self.text().split(''),
            i = 0;
        for (i = 0; i < textNodes.length; i += 1) {
            if (descenders[textNodes[i]]) {
                textNodes[i] = '<span class="descender">' + textNodes[i] + '</span>';
            } else {
                textNodes[i] = '<span class="underline">' + textNodes[i] + '</span>';
            }
        }
        self.html(textNodes.join(''));
    });
});