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10.4 CSS Border Images

CSS border-image Property

The CSS border-image property allows you to specify an image to be used instead of the normal border around an element.
The property has three parts:

1. The image to use as the border
2. Where to slice the image
3. Define whether the middle sections should be repeated or stretched

We will use the following image (called "border.png"):

The border-image property takes the image and slices it into nine sections, like a tic-tac-toe board. It then places the corners at the corners, and the middle sections are repeated or stretched as you specify.

Note: For border-image to work, the element also needs the border property set!

Here, the middle sections of the image are repeated to create the border:

Here is the code:

Example 1: Border-image Property

#borderimg {
  border: 10px solid transparent;
  padding: 15px;
  border-image: url(border.png) 30 round;
}

Here, the middle sections of the image are stretched to create the border:

Example 2: Border-image Property: Stretched

#borderimg {
  border: 10px solid transparent;
  padding: 15px;
  border-image: url(border.png) 30 stretch;
}

Tip: The border-image property is actually a shorthand property for the border-image-source, border-image-slice, border-image-width, border-image-outset and border-image-repeat properties.

CSS border-image - Different Slice Values

Different slice values completely changes the look of the border:

Example 1:

Example 2:

Example 3:

Here is the code:

Example 4: border-image - different slice values

#borderimg1 {
  border: 10px solid transparent;
  padding: 15px;
  border-image: url(border.png) 50 round;
}

#borderimg2 {
  border: 10px solid transparent;
  padding: 15px;
  border-image: url(border.png) 20% round;
}

#borderimg3 {
  border: 10px solid transparent;
  padding: 15px;
  border-image: url(border.png) 30% round;
}

CSS Border Image Properties

Property	Description
border-image	A shorthand property for setting all the border-image-* properties
border-image-source	Specifies the path to the image to be used as a border
border-image-slice	Specifies how to slice the border image
border-image-width	Specifies the widths of the border image
border-image-outset	Specifies the amount by which the border image area extends beyond the border box
border-image-repeat	Specifies whether the border image should be repeated, rounded or stretched