Paragraph Border

Cap types

Butt Cap: Creates squared ends that abut (stop at) the endpoints. Round Cap: Creates semicircular ends that extend half the stroke width beyond the endpoints. Projecting Cap: Creates squared ends that extend half the stroke width beyond the endpoints, evenly in all directions around the path.

Common Paragraph Border Examples

Line Between Paragraphs

Using paragraph border to achieve this effect allows you to get the look without having to create and then maintain an actual shape. In this case, the green line is a setting in the Resume Role paragraph style. Click to see these settings.

Frames Around Paragraphs

Paragraph border allows you to make paragraphs within a text frame look like they're in their own frame, to draw visual attention. Using paragraph border to achieve the effect on the left is dramatically faster and more efficient than making each value header it's own text frame that is anchored in the larger flow of text, or manually creating the curved line shape and manually moving its position. Click to see these settings.

Use Border and Shading Together

In this case, shading achieves the gray background and border the red line on the left. As with all of these examples, using border instead of manually creating shapes or extra frames saves effort, allows you to apply the entire formatting in a single click, and automatically adjusts the formatting when your text changes. Click to see these settings.

Top edge alignment options

Decent: This aligns the bottom edge of the border with the descent of the first line of text. The descent is the part of the lowercase letters that extends below the baseline, such as the tails of letters like "g," "j," "p," "q," and "y." Baseline: This aligns the bottom edge of the border to the baseline of the first line of text. The baseline is the line upon which most letters "sit" and below which descenders extend.

Top edge alignment options

Ascent: This aligns the top edge of the border to the ascent line of the first line of text. The ascent is the distance from the baseline to the highest point of the font's ascender (usually the top of the tallest lowercase letters, like "k" or "h"). Baseline: This aligns the top edge of the border to the baseline of the first line of text. The baseline is the line upon which most letters "sit" and below which descenders extend. Leading: This option aligns the top edge of the border with the leading of the paragraph. Leading is the vertical space between lines of text, which includes the space above and below the lines.

Join types

Miter Join: Creates pointed corners that extend beyond the endpoints when the miter’s length is within the miter limit. Round Join: Creates rounded corners that extend half the stroke width beyond the endpoints. Bevel Join: Creates squared corners that abut the endpoints.