CSS Border

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Border Style

The border-style property specifies what kind of border to display.

None of the border properties will have ANY effect unless the border-style property is set

border-style values:

none: Defines no border

dotted: Defines a dotted border

dashed: Defines a dashed border

solid: Defines a solid border

double: Defines two borders. The width of the two borders are the same as the border-width value

groove: Defines a 3D grooved border. The effect depends on the border-color value

ridge: Defines a 3D ridged border. The effect depends on the border-color value

inset: Defines a 3D inset border. The effect depends on the border-color value

outset: Defines a 3D outset border. The effect depends on the border-color value

Code it Online: Set the style of the border

Border Width

The border-width property is used to set the width of the border.

The width is set in pixels, or by using one of the three pre-defined values: thin, medium, or thick.

Note: The "border-width" property does not work if it is used alone. Use the "border-style" property to set the borders first.

Example p.one { border-style:solid; border-width:5px; } p.two { border-style:solid; border-width:medium; } Code it Online »

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Border Color

The border-color property is used to set the color of the border. The color can be set by:

• name - specify a color name, like "red"
• RGB - specify a RGB value, like "rgb(255,0,0)"
• Hex - specify a hex value, like "#920692"

You can also set the border color to "transparent".

Note: The "border-color" property does not work if it is used alone. Use the "border-style" property to set the borders first.

Example p.one { border-style:solid; border-color:red; } p.two { border-style:solid; border-color:#98bf21; }

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Border - Individual sides

In CSS it is possible to specify different borders for different sides:

Example p { border-top-style:dotted; border-right-style:solid; border-bottom-style:dotted; border-left-style:solid; }

The example above can also be set with a single property:

Example border-style:dotted solid;

The border-style property can have from one to four values.

• border-style:dotted solid double dashed;
  • top border is dotted
  • right border is solid
  • bottom border is double
  • left border is dashed
  
  
• border-style:dotted solid double;
  • top border is dotted
  • right and left borders are solid
  • bottom border is double
  
  
• border-style:dotted solid;
  • top and bottom borders are dotted
  • right and left borders are solid
  
  
• border-style:dotted;
  • all four borders are dotted

The border-style property is used in the example above. However, it also works with border-width and border-color.

Border - Shorthand property

As you can see from the examples above, there are many properties to consider when dealing with borders.

To shorten the code, it is also possible to specify all the border properties in one property. This is called a shorthand property.

The shorthand property for the border properties is "border":

Example border:5px solid red; Code it Online »

When using the border property, the order of the values are:

• border-width
• border-style
• border-color

It does not matter if one of the values above are missing (although, border-style is required), as long as the rest are in the specified order.

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More Examples

All the top border properties in one declaration
This example demonstrates a shorthand property for setting all of the properties for the top border in one declaration.

Set the style of the bottom border
This example demonstrates how to set the style of the bottom border.

Set the width of the left border
This example demonstrates how to set the width of the left border.

Set the color of the four borders
This example demonstrates how to set the color of the four borders. It can have from one to four colors.

Set the color of the right border
This example demonstrates how to set the color of the right border.

All CSS Border Properties

The number in the "CSS" column indicates in which CSS version the property is defined (CSS1 or CSS2).

Property	Description	Values	CSS
border	Sets all the border properties in one declaration	border-width border-style border-color	1
border-bottom	Sets all the bottom border properties in one declaration	border-bottom-width border-bottom-style border-bottom-color	1
border-bottom-color	Sets the color of the bottom border	border-color	2
border-bottom-style	Sets the style of the bottom border	border-style	2
border-bottom-width	Sets the width of the bottom border	border-width	1
border-color	Sets the color of the four borders	color_name hex_number rgb_number transparent inherit	1
border-left	Sets all the left border properties in one declaration	border-left-width border-left-style border-left-color	1
border-left-color	Sets the color of the left border	border-color	2
border-left-style	Sets the style of the left border	border-style	2
border-left-width	Sets the width of the left border	border-width	1
border-right	Sets all the right border properties in one declaration	border-right-width border-right-style border-right-color	1
border-right-color	Sets the color of the right border	border-color	2
border-right-style	Sets the style of the right border	border-style	2
border-right-width	Sets the width of the right border	border-width	1
border-style	Sets the style of the four borders	none hidden dotted dashed solid double groove ridge inset outset inherit	1
border-top	Sets all the top border properties in one declaration	border-top-width border-top-style border-top-color	1
border-top-color	Sets the color of the top border	border-color	2
border-top-style	Sets the style of the top border	border-style	2
border-top-width	Sets the width of the top border	border-width	1
border-width	Sets the width of the four borders	thin medium thick length inherit	1

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