CSS border-color

<!doctype html>
<title>Example</title>
<style>
div {
  font-size: 1.5em;
  padding: 20px;
  border-width: 9px;
  border-style: solid;
  border-color: orange;
  }
</style>
<div>This 'div' is styled using the CSS border-color. Try changing the value to see the effect it has on the border color.</div>

The CSS border-color property allows you to set the border color of a box.

The border-color property is a shorthand property for border-top-color, border-right-color, border-bottom-color, and border-left-color. If you only want to specify a border color for some sides (but not all sides), you can use one or more of those properties instead.

Note that you will also need to ensure that border-width is not 0 and that border-style is not set to none or hidden before the border is displayed.

Syntax

Possible Values

color: Specifies the color of the border. It must be a valid color.

You can provide between one and four color values. If you provide all four values, these set the top, right, bottom and left border, respectively.

The following examples demonstrate how the number of values affects the outcome.

One Color Specified

<!doctype html>
<title>Example</title>
<style>
div {
  font-size: 1.2em;
  padding: 20px;
  border-width: 9px;
  border-style: solid;
  border-color: cyan;
  }
</style>
<div>
  <code>border-color: cyan;</code>
</div>

Two Colors Specified

<!doctype html>
<title>Example</title>
<style>
div {
  font-size: 1.2em;
  padding: 20px;
  border-width: 9px;
  border-style: solid;
  border-color: cyan magenta;
  }
</style>
<div>
  <code>border-color: cyan magenta;</code>
</div>

Three Colors Specified

<!doctype html>
<title>Example</title>
<style>
div {
  font-size: 1.2em;
  padding: 20px;
  border-width: 9px;
  border-style: solid;
  border-color: cyan magenta yellow;
  }
</style>
<div>
  <code>border-color: cyan magenta yellow;</code>
</div>

Four Colors Specified

<!doctype html>
<title>Example</title>
<style>
div {
  font-size: 1.2em;
  padding: 20px;
  border-width: 9px;
  border-style: solid;
  border-color: cyan magenta yellow black;
  }
</style>
<div>
  <code>border-color: cyan magenta yellow black;</code>
</div>

In addition, all CSS properties also accept the following CSS-wide keyword values as the sole component of their property value:

initial: Represents the value specified as the property's initial value.
inherit: Represents the computed value of the property on the element's parent.
unset: This value acts as either inherit or initial, depending on whether the property is inherited or not. In other words, it sets all properties to their parent value if they are inheritable or to their initial value if not inheritable.

General Information

Initial Value: Uses the currentColor value (which is the value of the color property).
Applies To: All elements.
Inherited?: No
Media: Visual
Animatable: Yes (see example)

Example Code

Official Specifications

CSS Backgrounds and Borders Module Level 3 (W3C Candidate Recommendation 9 September 2014)
CSS Level 2.1 (W3C Recommendation 07 June 2011)
CSS Level 1 (W3C Recommendation 17 Dec 1996)