CSS border-color Property

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The CSS border-color property is a shorthand for setting the color of the four sides of an element's border. It is shorthand for the following properties:

Each side can have its own value. The border-color property is used with the border-style property. If the value is 0, the border-color property has no effect.

This property takes any CSS colors value. Default color is the current color of the element.

The border-color property can have 4 values. If it has one value, the color is applied to all four borders. If it has two values, the first value is set to the top and bottom borders, the second value is set to the right and left. If it has three values, the first one is applied to the top border, the second one to the right and left, and the third one to the bottom. If it has four values the first is set to the top, the second to the right, the third to the bottom and the fourth to the left.

Initial Value	currentColor
Applies to	All elements. It also applies to ::first-letter.
Inherited	No.
Animatable	Yes. The borders of the box are animatable.
Version	CSS1
DOM Syntax	object.style.borderStyle = "dotted double";

Syntax

border-color: color | transparent | initial | inherit;

Here we have an example where only one value is applied. It sets the color to all fours sides of the element.

Example of the border-color property:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      .dotted {
        border-style: dotted;
        border-color: #1c87c9;
        padding: 5px;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div class="dotted">Example with blue dotted border.</div>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

Result

Let’s see another example where four values are applied. The first one is used to the top border, the second one to the right, the third one to the bottom and the fourth one to the left.

Example of the border-color property with 4 values:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Title of the document</title>
    <style>
      .solid {
        border-style: solid;
        border-color: #1c87c9 cyan yellow #8ebf42;
        padding: 5px;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div class="solid">Example with border-color property.</div>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

You can set hexadecimal, RGB, RGBA, HSL, HSLA or color names as a value for the border-color property.

Learn more about HTML Colors.

Example of the border-color property with the "color" value:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <style>
      p {
        border: 5px solid #666;
        width: 60%;
        padding: 5px;
      }
      .name {
        border-color: lightblue;
      }
      .hex {
        border-color: #1c87c9;
      }
      .rgb {
        border-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.15);
      }
      .hsl {
        border-color: hsl(89, 43%, 51%);
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p class="name">Border with a named color.</p>
    <p class="hex">Border with a hexadecimal value.</p>
    <p class="rgb">Border with a RGB color value.</p>
    <p class="hsl">Border with a HSL color value.</p>
  </body>
</html>

Try it Yourself »

Values

Value	Description	Play it
color	Sets a color for the borders. Default color is the current color of the element. Color names, hexadecimal color codes, rgb(), rgba(), hsl(), hsla() can be used. Required value.	Play it »
transparent	Makes the border color transparent.	Play it »
initial	Sets the property to its default value.	Play it »
inherit	Inherits the property from its parent element.