Is there an easy way to add a border to the top and bottom of an Android View?

Question

I have a TextView and I'd like to add a black border along its top and bottom borders. I tried adding android:drawableTop and android:drawableBottom to the TextView, but that only caused the entire view to become black.

<TextView
    android:background="@android:color/green"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:drawableTop="@android:color/black"
    android:drawableBottom="@android:color/black"
    android:text="la la la" />

Is there a way to easily add a top and bottom border to a View (in particular, a TextView) in Android?

Demote

It's surprising nobody has mentioned dividerVertical ! This is the thing created by Android, to achieve, well, vertical dividers. COoldn't be easier and you do everything in the "Design" WYSIWYG panel in Android Studio. – Minefield

note dividerVertical was implemented in API 11. – Oneiric

Maybe you can show how to use dividerVertical? – Comintern

Answer 1

In android 2.2 you could do the following.

Create an xml drawable such as /res/drawable/textlines.xml and assign this as a TextView's background property.

<TextView
android:text="My text with lines above and below"
android:background="@drawable/textlines"
/>

/res/drawable/textlines.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
    <item>
      <shape 
        android:shape="rectangle">
            <stroke android:width="1dp" android:color="#FF000000" />
            <solid android:color="#FFDDDDDD" />

        </shape>
   </item>

   <item android:top="1dp" android:bottom="1dp"> 
      <shape 
        android:shape="rectangle">
            <stroke android:width="1dp" android:color="#FFDDDDDD" />
            <solid android:color="#00000000" />
        </shape>
   </item>

</layer-list>

The down side to this is that you have to specify an opaque background colour, as transparencies won't work. (At least i thought they did but i was mistaken). In the above example you can see that the solid colour of the first shape #FFdddddd is copied in the 2nd shapes stroke colour.

Osteopathy

Also see this solution, which also works for TextViews, if you want a border all around: #3264111 – Demote

Try using android:color="@null" to avoid opaque background problem. – Grouper

@Demote : when testing this code on tablet , it takes time to render on screen, after 1 sec borders get displayed when I scroll – Tuchun

The android:color="@null" trick didn't do the trick for me for keeping transparency and just displaying a border at one side of the view. Answer from user1051892 below did the job! – Pickings

This solution made a border on the left and right as well - though a thinner one. – Alkane

why not use @android:color/transparent instead #00000000 to get a better pattern? – Rosarosabel

Yes, you can use @android:color/transparent. I didn't just for clarity in the example code. – Osteopathy

This is broken on Ice Cream Sandwich. A line shows on the right hand edge. – Complement

@kilaka If you changed the colors, make sure that you changed them in the bottom item too. – Pennate

Answer 2

I've used a trick so that the border is displayed outside the container. With this trick only a line is drawn so the background will be shown of the underlying view.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
    <item
        android:bottom="1dp"
        android:left="-2dp"
        android:right="-2dp"
        android:top="-2dp">
        <shape android:shape="rectangle" >
            <stroke
                android:width="1dp"
                android:color="#FF000000" />

            <solid android:color="#00FFFFFF" />

            <padding android:left="10dp"
                android:right="10dp"
                android:top="10dp"
                android:bottom="10dp" />
        </shape>
    </item>

</layer-list>

Legitimist

This worked great for me, with a few tweaks to make the line a bit thinner. – Quadrivium

Very nice trick, although it could be nicer if we don't have to trick the computer in order to get things done. – Vinery

nicely done! what you should watch is item's left, top, right, bottom should -(stroke's width)dp – Wolfsbane

Didn't show any border - just made my view content look smaller :( – Alkane

Nicely done, worked with transparent background. Tested in 2.2 and 4.4.2. Should cover all in between :) – Bialy

That's the right one! This one also works on Android 4.0.3 and higher. – Dundalk

Thanks! I was messing around to try to do such a thing for half a day now. You just solved it to me :) much appreciated! – Eclogue

This solution works - I just don't like having to explain myself to the next dev why I added negative values. This is, after all, a hack. Nicely done though. – Desdee

@Demote I suggest to select this answer as the valid one, since it doesn't add a background and it only adds a border to the bottom. Will be more easy for other people to spot the right answer. – Bink

I delete this line <solid android:color="#00FFFFFF" />, it also works~ – Entrepreneur

Answer 3

To add a 1dp white border at the bottom only and to have a transparent background you can use the following which is simpler than most answers here.

For the TextView or other view add:

android:background="@drawable/borderbottom"

And in the drawable directory add the following XML, called borderbottom.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item android:top="-2dp" android:left="-2dp" android:right="-2dp">
        <shape android:shape="rectangle">
            <stroke android:width="1dp" android:color="#ffffffff" />
            <solid android:color="#00000000" />
        </shape>
    </item>
</layer-list>

If you want a border at the top, change the android:top="-2dp" to android:bottom="-2dp"

The colour does not need to be white and the background does not need to be transparent either.

The solid element may not be required. This will depend on your design (thanks V. Kalyuzhnyu).

Basically, this XML will create a border using the rectangle shape, but then pushes the top, right and left sides beyond the render area for the shape. This leaves just the bottom border visible.

Litre

This is the best solution, as it does not create overdraw like the others – Housley

Is there a reason that negative positions are twice as big as stroke with (-2dp vs 1dp)? Seems to work when they are equal in amount (-1 and 1). – Scapolite

@DenisKniazhev : When using -2dp the result was always clean. I think there was test case where the result was not clean. I can't remember if it was a low or high density screen or even an older version of Android (2.x maybe). – Litre

Interesting. Do you know if this is a general case, for example if I use 4dp for stroke width should I use -8dp for positioning? – Scapolite

@DenisKniazhev : (from memory) it looked like a floating point calculation that was just a little to big or small. This means a value of -5dp would be all that is needed with a width value of 4pd. It simply needed to be a little bigger to get over the float value inaccuracy. – Litre

As for me solid is redunt – Famine

Answer 4

Option 1: Shape Drawable

This is the simplest option if you want a border around a layout or view in which you can set the background. Create an XML file in the drawable folder that looks something like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:shape="rectangle" >

    <solid android:color="#8fff93" />

    <stroke
        android:width="1px"
        android:color="#000" />

</shape>

You can remove the solid if you don't want a fill. The set background="@drawable/your_shape_drawable" on your layout/view.

Option 2: Background View

Here's a little trick I've used in a RelativeLayout. Basically you have a black square under the view you want to give a border, and then give that view some padding (not margin!) so the black square shows through at the edges.

Obviously this only works properly if the view doesn't have any transparent areas. If it does I would recommend you write a custom BorderView which only draws the border - it should only be a few dozen lines of code.

<View
    android:id="@+id/border"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_alignBottom="@+id/image"
    android:layout_alignLeft="@+id/image"
    android:layout_alignRight="@+id/image"
    android:layout_alignTop="@+id/main_image"
    android:background="#000" />

<ImageView
    android:id="@+id/image"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_...
    android:padding="1px"
    android:src="@drawable/..." />

If you're wondering, it does work with adjustViewBounds=true. However, it doesn't work if you want to have a background in an entire RelativeLayout, because there is a bug that stops you filling a RelativeLayout with a View. In that case I'd recommend the Shape drawable.

Option 3: 9-patch

A final option is to use a 9-patch drawable like this one:

You can use it on any view where you can set android:background="@drawable/...". And yes it does need to be 6x6 - I tried 5x5 and it didn't work.

The disadvantage of this method is you can't change the colours very easily, but if you want fancy borders (e.g. only a border at the top and bottom, as in this question) then you may not be able to do them with the Shape drawable, which isn't very powerful.

Option 4: Extra views

I forgot to mention this really simple option if you only want borders above and below your view. You can put your view in a vertical LinearLayout (if it isn't already) and then add empty Views above and below it like this:

<View android:background="#000" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="1px"/>

Exclusive

9 patch and the shape drawable are ok, but i would recommend against adding views or imageviews to solve such a problem. The reason being is that you should be removing as many such <elements> from your layouts to improve layout redrawing and animation. I would strip these out right away and implement some similar to option 1 or 2. – Osteopathy

@Osteopathy That's true, but if you're using a custom ListView that doesn't support dividers a simple View is fine. The performance impact is next to nil, especially if you're sure to keep your layout depth down. It also circumvents bugs with ListView dividers across devices (I've seen some devices that ignore this property). – Unreal

You can also use the efficient viewholder pattern with listviews to ensure you reduce the number of calls to findViewByID which is often the cause of poor list performance. – Osteopathy

In iOS you have only one way to do that. On android you should test at least four, in my case option 4 was the way to go. Sometimes drawables as background hang to render, be aware of it. – Forte

Why android didn't have the easiest solution for such things? as in other language, like HTML, CSS, or something JavaFX, WPF...... – Accede

Using "Option 2: Background View (in Relative Layout)" and it is working like a charm. Thanks a lot :) – Versify

Option 1 sounds good but it creates borders to the left and right as well. – Odelsting

Answer 5

The currently accepted answer doesn't work. It creates thin vertical borders on the left and right sides of the view as a result of anti-aliasing.

This version works perfectly. It also allows you to set the border widths independently, and you can also add borders on the left / right sides if you want. The only drawback is that it does NOT support transparency.

Create an xml drawable named /res/drawable/top_bottom_borders.xml with the code below and assign it as a TextView's background property.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item>
        <shape android:shape="rectangle">
            <solid android:color="#DDDD00" /> <!-- border color -->
        </shape>
    </item>

    <item
        android:bottom="1dp" 
        android:top="1dp">   <!-- adjust borders width here -->
        <shape android:shape="rectangle">
            <solid android:color="#FFFFFF" />  <!-- background color -->
        </shape>
    </item>
</layer-list>

Tested on Android KitKat through Marshmallow

Microfiche

How to make inside transparent ? – Immodest

@HiteshSahu I think the downside of this is that you would have to match the background of the layout with the background of the widget here – Staccato

Answer 6

So I wanted to do something slightly different: a border on the bottom ONLY, to simulate a ListView divider. I modified Piet Delport's answer and got this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
   <item>
      <shape 
        android:shape="rectangle">
            <solid android:color="@color/background_trans_light" />    

        </shape>
   </item>

    <!-- this mess is what we have to do to get a bottom border only. -->
   <item android:top="-2dp"
         android:left="-2dp"
         android:right="-2dp"
         android:bottom="1px"> 
      <shape 
        android:shape="rectangle">    
            <stroke android:width="1dp" android:color="@color/background_trans_mid" />
            <solid android:color="@null" />
        </shape>
   </item>

</layer-list>

Note using px instead of dp to get exactly 1 pixel divider (some phone DPIs will make a 1dp line disappear).

Hite

dear! what is the value of "@color/background_trans_light"? – Schilling

Cheers @phreakhead, this actually works for me! No top, left, or right border. Exactly what I needed, thanks! – Restraint

Please can you explain why when you put -2dp it dissapears and when you put -1dp it is still visible? Thanks! – Infertile

@Hite better if you add some explanation to this – Scheld

Answer 7

Add file to res/drawable

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
        <item android:left="-2dp" android:right="-2dp">
            <shape android:shape="rectangle">
                <stroke
                    android:width="1dp"
                    android:color="#000000" />
            </shape>
        </item>
    </layer-list>

Add link on this file to background property

Cardigan

Answer 8

Just as @Nic Hubbard said, there is a very easy way to add a border line.

<View
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="2dp"
    android:background="#000000" >
</View>

You can change the height and background color to whatever you want.

Pneumatometer

Answer 9

You can also wrap the view in a FrameLayout, then set the frame's background color and padding to what you want; however, the textview, by default has a 'transparent' background, so you'd need to change the textview's background color too.

Dimissory

Pretty simple. You control the size and direction of outlines by the margins of the inner View. Thanks. – Abscess

Answer 10

My answers is based on @Emile version but I use transparent color instead of solid.
This example will draw a 2dp bottom border.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
    <item>
        <shape android:shape="rectangle" >
            <stroke  android:width="2dp"
                     android:color="#50C0E9" />
            <solid android:color="@android:color/transparent" />
        </shape>
    </item>
    <item  android:bottom="2dp" >
        <shape android:shape="rectangle" >
            <stroke  android:width="2dp"
                     android:color="@color/bgcolor" />
            <solid android:color="@android:color/transparent" />
        </shape>
    </item>
</layer-list>

@color/bgcolor is the color of the background on wich you draw your view with border.

If you want to change the position of the border change the offset with one of:

android:bottom="2dp"
android:top="2dp"
android:right="2dp"
android:left="2dp"

or combine them to have 2 or more borders:

android:bottom="2dp" android:top="2dp"

Johnsson

Answer 11

Simplest way to add borders to inset the borders using InsetDrawable,following will show top border only :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<inset xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:insetBottom="-2dp"
    android:insetLeft="-2dp"
    android:insetRight="-2dp">
    <shape android:shape="rectangle">

        <solid android:color="@color/light_gray" />
        <stroke
            android:width=".5dp"
            android:color="@color/dark_gray" />
    </shape>
</inset>

Mizuki

Answer 12

You can do this by this code snippet -

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <!--Minus (-) how much dp you gave in the stroke width from left right-->
    <item android:left="-10dp" android:right="-10dp">
        <shape
            android:shape="rectangle">
            <stroke android:width="10dp" android:color="@android:color/holo_red_dark" />
           <!--This is the main background -->
            <solid android:color="#FFDDDDDD" />
        </shape>
    </item>
</layer-list>

Preview -

Noisette

Answer 13

Why not just create a 1dp high view with a background color? Then it can be easily placed where you want.

Villon

Answer 14

To change this:

<TextView
    android:text="My text"
    android:background="@drawable/top_bottom_border"/>

I prefer this approach in "drawable/top_bottom_border.xml":

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item>
        <shape>
            <gradient
                android:angle="270"
                android:startColor="#000"
                android:centerColor="@android:color/transparent"
                android:centerX="0.01" />
        </shape>
    </item>
    <item>
        <shape>
            <gradient
                android:angle="90"
                android:startColor="#000"
                android:centerColor="@android:color/transparent"
                android:centerX="0.01" />
        </shape>
    </item>
</layer-list>

This only makes the borders, not a rectangle that will appear if your background has a color.

Rennold

Answer 15

First make a xml file with contents shown below and name it border.xml and place it inside the layout folder inside the res directory

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <stroke android:width="1dp" android:color="#0000" />
    <padding android:left="0dp" android:top="1dp" android:right="0dp"
        android:bottom="1dp" />
</shape>

After that inside the code use

TextView tv = (TextView)findElementById(R.id.yourTextView);
tv.setBackgroundResource(R.layout.border);

This will make a black line on top and bottom of the TextView.

Adenitis

Yes, It will Work, I have checked. Button button= (Button) findViewById(R.id.button); button.setBackgroundResource(R.layout.border); – Adenitis

I have used black color in the above xml file, your background color might be black, try by using some other color. It will definitely work <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <shape xmlns:android="schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"> <solid android:color="#474848" /> <stroke android:width="1dp" android:color="#ffff00" /> <padding android:left="1dp" android:top="1dp" android:right="1dp" android:bottom="1dp" /> </shape> – Adenitis

Didn't work for me. The border line was painted in the middle of the text view - horizontally. – Alkane

Answer 16

Just to add my solution to the list..

I wanted a semi transparent bottom border that extends past the original shape (So the semi-transparent border was outside the parent rectangle).

<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
  <item>
    <shape android:shape="rectangle" >      
      <solid android:color="#33000000" /> <!-- Border colour -->
    </shape>
  </item>
  <item  android:bottom="2dp" >
    <shape android:shape="rectangle" >     
      <solid android:color="#164586" />
    </shape>
  </item>
</layer-list>

Which gives me;

Sociable

Answer 17

Simply add Views at the top and bottom of the View

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <View
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="1dp"
        android:background="@color/your_color"
        app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="@+id/textView"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="@+id/textView"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="@+id/textView" />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textView"
        android:layout_width="0dp"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginTop="32dp"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:text="Testing"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />

    <View
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="1dp"
        android:background="@color/your_color"
        app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="@+id/textView"
        app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="@+id/textView"
        app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@+id/textView" />

</android.support.constraint.ConstraintLayout>

Save

Answer 18

Write down below code

<View
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="2dip"
    android:layout_below="@+id/topics_text"
    android:layout_marginTop="7dp"
    android:layout_margin="10dp"
    android:background="#ffffff" />

Hymenopterous

Answer 19

Try wrapping the image with a linearlayout, and set it's background to the border color you want around the text. Then set the padding on the textview to be the thickness you want for your border.

Compete

Answer 20

You can also use a 9-path to do your job. Create it so that colored pixel do not multiply in height but only the transparent pixel.

Hailstone

Answer 21

Based on accepted answer of Pi Delport and Emile, I made it a little simpler

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
<item>  <!--divider TOP and BOTTOM-->
    <shape android:shape="rectangle">
        <stroke 
            android:width="1dp"
            android:color="@color/divider" />
    </shape>
</item>

<!--background surface-->
<item
    android:top="1dp"
    android:bottom="1dp">
    <shape android:shape="rectangle">
        <solid android:color="@color/background" />
    </shape>
</item>

Sawbuck

Answer 22

// Just simply add border around the image view or view

<ImageView
                android:id="@+id/imageView2"
                android:layout_width="90dp"
                android:layout_height="70dp"
                android:layout_centerVertical="true"
                android:layout_marginRight="10dp"
                android:layout_toLeftOf="@+id/imageView1"
                android:background="@android:color/white"
                android:padding="5dip" />

// After that dynamically put color into your view or image view object

objView.setBackgroundColor(Color.GREEN);

//VinodJ/Abhishek

Lithium

Answer 23

<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">

<solid android:color="@color/light_grey1" />
<stroke
    android:width="1dip"
    android:color="@color/light_grey1" />

<corners
    android:bottomLeftRadius="0dp"
    android:bottomRightRadius="0dp"
    android:topLeftRadius="5dp"
    android:topRightRadius="5dp" />

    </shape>

Injury

Answer 24

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/textView3"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="2dp"
    android:background="#72cdf4"
    android:text=" aa" />

Just Add this TextView below the text where you want to add the border

Piccoloist

Answer 25

Just to enforce @phreakhead ´s and user1051892 ´s answers, <item android:bottom|android:left|android:right|android:top> if negative, must to be greater than <stroke android:width>. If not, item´s painting will be mixed with stroke´s painting and you may think these values are not working.

Sundog