How to: Create a Border Around a Windows Forms Control Using Padding

The following code example demonstrates how to create a border or outline around a RichTextBox control. The example sets the value of a Panel control’s Padding property to 5 and sets the Dock property of a child RichTextBox control to Fill. The BackColor of the Panel control is set to Blue, which creates a blue border around the RichTextBox control.

Example

using System;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace MarginAndPadding
{
    public class Form1 : Form
    {
        private Panel panel1;
        private RichTextBox richTextBox1;
        /// <summary>
        /// Required designer variable.
        /// </summary>
        private System.ComponentModel.IContainer components = null;

        // This code example demonstrates using the Padding property to
        // create a border around a RichTextBox control.
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            this.panel1.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Blue;
            this.panel1.Padding = new System.Windows.Forms.Padding(5);
            this.panel1.Dock = System.Windows.Forms.DockStyle.Fill;

            this.richTextBox1.BorderStyle = System.Windows.Forms.BorderStyle.None;
            this.richTextBox1.Dock = System.Windows.Forms.DockStyle.Fill;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Clean up any resources being used.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="disposing">true if managed resources should be disposed; otherwise, false.</param>
        protected override void Dispose(bool disposing)
        {
            if (disposing && (components != null))
            {
                components.Dispose();
            }
            base.Dispose(disposing);
        }

        #region Windows Form Designer generated code

        /// <summary>
        /// Required method for Designer support - do not modify
        /// the contents of this method with the code editor.
        /// </summary>
        private void InitializeComponent()
        {
            this.panel1 = new System.Windows.Forms.Panel();
            this.richTextBox1 = new System.Windows.Forms.RichTextBox();
            this.panel1.SuspendLayout();
            this.SuspendLayout();
            //
            // panel1
            //
            this.panel1.Controls.Add(this.richTextBox1);
            this.panel1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(20, 20);
            this.panel1.Name = "panel1";
            this.panel1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(491, 313);
            this.panel1.TabIndex = 0;
            //
            // richTextBox1
            //
            this.richTextBox1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(5, 5);
            this.richTextBox1.Name = "richTextBox1";
            this.richTextBox1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(481, 303);
            this.richTextBox1.TabIndex = 0;
            this.richTextBox1.Text = "";
            //
            // Form1
            //
            this.AutoScaleDimensions = new System.Drawing.SizeF(6F, 13F);
            this.AutoScaleMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoScaleMode.Font;
            this.ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size(531, 353);
            this.Controls.Add(this.panel1);
            this.Name = "Form1";
            this.Padding = new System.Windows.Forms.Padding(20);
            this.Text = "Form1";
            this.panel1.ResumeLayout(false);
            this.ResumeLayout(false);
        }

        #endregion
    }

    static class Program
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// The main entry point for the application.
        /// </summary>
        [STAThread]
        static void Main()
        {
            Application.EnableVisualStyles();
            Application.Run(new Form1());
        }
    }
}

See also

• Padding
• Margin and Padding in Windows Forms Controls