w:pgBorders (Page Borders)

Specifies borders drawn around each page in a section, with control over which sides display a border and their offset from the page or text edges.

Parent elements

w:sectPr

Child elements

Description

w:pgBorders defines decorative borders around the pages of a section. Unlike paragraph borders (w:pBdr), page borders are drawn at the page margin level and can extend to the edge of the page.

It is defined in ECMA-376 Part 1 §17.6.10.

Attributes

Attribute	Type	Possible Values	Description
`w:zOrder`	`ST_PageBorderZOrder`	`front`, `back`	Whether the border is drawn in front of or behind page content.
`w:display`	`ST_PageBorderDisplay`	`allPages`, `firstPage`, `notFirstPage`	Which pages in the section display the border.
`w:offsetFrom`	`ST_PageBorderOffset`	`page`, `text`	Whether border distances are measured from the page edge or from the text margins.

Child Elements

Each side is represented by its own child element (w:top, w:left, w:bottom, w:right) with the following attributes:

Attribute	Description
`w:val`	Border style (`ST_Border`): `single`, `double`, `dashSmallGap`, `apples`, etc. (including art borders).
`w:color`	Six-digit hex RGB or `auto`.
`w:sz`	Width in eighths of a point.
`w:space`	Distance from text/page edge in points.

Examples

<w:sectPr>
  <w:pgBorders w:offsetFrom="page">
    <w:top    w:val="single" w:color="000000" w:sz="24" w:space="24"/>
    <w:left   w:val="single" w:color="000000" w:sz="24" w:space="24"/>
    <w:bottom w:val="single" w:color="000000" w:sz="24" w:space="24"/>
    <w:right  w:val="single" w:color="000000" w:sz="24" w:space="24"/>
  </w:pgBorders>
  <!-- pgSz, pgMar omitted -->
</w:sectPr>

using DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Wordprocessing;

var sectPr = new SectionProperties(
    new PageBorders(
        new TopBorder    { Val = BorderValues.Single, Color = "000000", Size = 24U, Space = 24U },
        new LeftBorder   { Val = BorderValues.Single, Color = "000000", Size = 24U, Space = 24U },
        new BottomBorder { Val = BorderValues.Single, Color = "000000", Size = 24U, Space = 24U },
        new RightBorder  { Val = BorderValues.Single, Color = "000000", Size = 24U, Space = 24U }
    )
    { OffsetFrom = PageBorderOffsetValues.Page }
);

Notes

Art borders (w:val art border types like apples, babyPacifier, etc.) are only supported by certain renderers; use with caution for cross-application compatibility.
If only certain sides should have borders, omit the other side child elements.
w:space is measured in points when w:offsetFrom="page", and in twentieths-of-a-point when w:offsetFrom="text".