How do I put a border around an Android textview?

You can set a shape drawable (a rectangle) as background for the view.

<TextView android:text="Some text" android:background="@drawable/back"/>

And rectangle drawable back.xml (put into res/drawable folder):

<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:shape="rectangle" >
   <solid android:color="@android:color/white" />
   <stroke android:width="1dip" android:color="#4fa5d5"/>
</shape>

You can use @android:color/transparent for the solid color to have a transparent background. You can also use padding to separate the text from the border. for more information see: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/drawable-resource.html

Let me summarize a few different (non-programmatic) methods.

Using a shape drawable

Save the following as an XML file in your drawable folder (for example, my_border.xml):

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

    <!-- View background color -->
    <solid
        android:color="@color/background_color" >
    </solid>

    <!-- View border color and width -->
    <stroke
        android:width="1dp"
        android:color="@color/border_color" >
    </stroke>

    <!-- The radius makes the corners rounded -->
    <corners
        android:radius="2dp"   >
    </corners>

</shape>

Then just set it as the background to your TextView:

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/textview1"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:background="@drawable/my_border" />

More help:

• Shape Drawable (Android docs)
• Android Developer Tips & Tricks: XML Drawables (Part I)

Using a 9-patch

A 9-patch is a stretchable background image. If you make an image with a border then it will give your TextView a border. All you need to do is make the image and then set it to the background in your TextView.

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/textview1"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:background="@drawable/my_ninepatch_image" />

Here are some links that will show how to make a 9-patch image:

• Draw 9-patch
• Simple Nine-patch Generator
• A simple guide to 9-patch for Android UI
• Creating & Using 9-patch images in Android

What if I just want the top border?

Using a layer-list

You can use a layer list to stack two rectangles on top of each other. By making the second rectangle just a little smaller than the first rectangle, you can make a border effect. The first (lower) rectangle is the border color and the second rectangle is the background color.

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

    <!-- Lower rectangle (border color) -->
    <item>
        <shape android:shape="rectangle">
            <solid android:color="@color/border_color" />
        </shape>
    </item>

    <!-- Upper rectangle (background color) -->
    <item android:top="2dp">
        <shape android:shape="rectangle">
            <solid android:color="@color/background_color" />
        </shape>
    </item>
</layer-list>

Setting android:top="2dp" offsets the top (makes it smaller) by 2dp. This allows the first (lower) rectangle to show through, giving a border effect. You can apply this to the TextView background the same way that the shape drawable was done above.

Here are some more links about layer lists:

• Understanding Android's <layer-list>
• How to make bottom border in drawable shape XML selector?
• Create borders on a android view in drawable xml, on 3 sides?

Using a 9-patch

You can just make a 9-patch image with a single border. Everything else is the same as discussed above.

Using a View

This is kind of a trick but it works well if you need to add a seperator between two views or a border to a single TextView.

<LinearLayout
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical" >

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textview1"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" />

    <!-- This adds a border between the TextViews -->
    <View
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="2dp"
        android:background="@android:color/black" />

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textview2"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content" />

</LinearLayout>

Here are some more links:

• How to draw a line in Android
• How to put a horizontal divisor line between edit text's in a activity
• How to add a horizontal 1px line above image view in a relative layout?

The simple way is to add a view for your TextView. Example for the bottom border line:

<LinearLayout android:orientation="vertical"
              android:layout_width="fill_parent"
              android:layout_height="fill_parent">
    <TextView
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginTop="10dp"
        android:layout_marginLeft="10dp"
        android:text="@string/title"
        android:id="@+id/title_label"
        android:gravity="center_vertical"/>
    <View
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="0.2dp"
        android:id="@+id/separator"
        android:visibility="visible"
        android:background="@android:color/darker_gray"/>

</LinearLayout>

For the other direction borders, please adjust the location of the separator view.