Trusted WordPress tutorials, when you need them most.
Beginner’s Guide to WordPress
WPB Cup
25 Million+
Websites using our plugins
16+
Years of WordPress experience
3000+
WordPress tutorials
by experts

How to Add a Border Around an Image in WordPress

Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on WPBeginner. Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations. Learn more about Editorial Process.

Do you want to add a border around your images in WordPress? Recently, one of our users asked us for an easy way to add border around an image in WordPress. While you can use CSS, it’s confusing for beginners. In this article, we will show you an easy way to add image border in WordPress without editing any HTML or CSS code.

WordPress Image Borders

Video Tutorial

Subscribe to WPBeginner

If you don’t like the video or need more instructions, then continue reading.

Method 1: Using a Plugin to Add Image Border in WordPress

This method is for beginners who do not wish to edit any HTML or CSS. First thing you need to do is install and activate the WP Image Borders plugin. Upon activation, you need to visit Settings » WP Image Borders to configure the plugin settings.

Settings page for WP Image Borders plugin

The first section in the plugin settings allows you to target images. You can add borders to all images in your WordPress posts by checking the box next to ‘Add borders to all images in blog posts’ option.

Alternatively, you can target specific CSS classes to have borders. We will show you how to add a CSS class to a specific image later in this article. Right now you can put anything into the CSS class like .border-image.

The second section in the plugin settings allows you to customize border settings. You can choose a border style, width, radius, and color.

The last section on the settings page allows you to add drop shadows to your images. You can enter a horizontal and vertical distance, blur and spread radius, as well as box shadow color. If you do not want to add drop shadows to your images, then you can simply leave these fields blank.

Don’t forget to click on the Save Changes button to store your plugin settings.

If you selected the first option ‘Add borders to all images in blog posts’, then you do not need to do anything else.

You should see image borders on all your blog post images.

However if you selected the second option to only show border for specific images, then you need to follow the next step.

Adding CSS Class to an Image in WordPress

If you only wish to add borders around selected images, then you will need to tell WordPress which images should have borders. You can do this by adding a CSS class to images that need borders.

Simply upload your image and add it to your post. After adding the image click on it in the visual editor and then click on the edit button in the toolbar.

Editing an image in WordPress

This will bring up image editing popup showing your image details. You need to click on the Advanced Options to expand it, and then enter your image’s css class.

Hint: this is .border-image because we selected that in our plugin settings.

Adding CSS class to an image in WordPress

Next, click on the update button to save and update image settings. That’s all, your image will now have an additional class. Since you are using WP Image Borders plugin, a border will show up on this image.

Method 2: Using HTML & CSS to add Image Borders in WordPress

Adding image borders using CSS/HTML is a faster and quicker way to get borders around your images in WordPress. There are many ways you can do this, and we will show you all of them. You can choose whatever works best for you.

Adding Borders Using In-line Styles in WordPress

After you have uploaded and inserted your image into a WordPress post, switch to the text editor. You will see HTML code for your image. It will look something like this:

<img src="http://www.example.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/bluebird-300x203.jpg" alt="bluebird" width="300" height="203" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-36" />

You can easily add CSS style in the HTML code like this:

<img src="http://www.example.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/bluebird-300x203.jpg" alt="bluebird" width="300" height="203" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-36" style="border:3px solid #eeeeee; padding:3px; margin:3px;" />

Feel free to change the border width, color, padding, and margin to your own needs.

Adding Image Border in Your WordPress Theme or Child Theme

If you want to permanently add borders to all images in your WordPress blog posts and pages, then you can add CSS directly in your WordPress theme or child theme.

Most WordPress themes already have these style rules defined in the theme’s stylesheet which is usually style.css file. You can modify the existing CSS, or you can add your own CSS in a child theme.

WordPress adds default image classes to all images. In order to make sure that images in your posts/pages have an image border, you need to target all these classes. Here is a simple CSS snippet to get you started:

img.alignright {
float:right; 
margin:0 0 1em 1em;
border:3px solid #EEEEEE;
}
img.alignleft {
float:left; 
margin:0 1em 1em 0;
border:3px solid #EEEEEE;
}
img.aligncenter {
display: block; 
margin-left: auto; 
margin-right: auto;
border:3px solid #EEEEEE;
}
img.alignnone { 
border:3px solid #EEE; 
}

If you want to only use image borders when you need them, then you can add CSS class to your images (see above). Add styling rules for this CSS class in your theme or child theme.

img.border-image { 
border: 3px solid #eee;
padding:3px; 
margin:3px;
}

We hope this article helped you add image border around your WordPress blog images. You may also want to see our guide on how to save images optimized for the web to speed up your WordPress site.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

Disclosure: Our content is reader-supported. This means if you click on some of our links, then we may earn a commission. See how WPBeginner is funded, why it matters, and how you can support us. Here's our editorial process.

Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, Web Hosting, eCommerce, SEO, and Marketing. Started in 2009, WPBeginner is now the largest free WordPress resource site in the industry and is often referred to as the Wikipedia for WordPress.

The Ultimate WordPress Toolkit

Get FREE access to our toolkit - a collection of WordPress related products and resources that every professional should have!

Reader Interactions

12 CommentsLeave a Reply

  1. Syed Balkhi says

    Hey WPBeginner readers,
    Did you know you can win exciting prizes by commenting on WPBeginner?
    Every month, our top blog commenters will win HUGE rewards, including premium WordPress plugin licenses and cash prizes.
    You can get more details about the contest from here.
    Start sharing your thoughts below to stand a chance to win!

  2. Reuben says

    Trying to get this to work using the Gutenberg editor and instead I get the following error: This block contains unexpected or invalid content.”

    I know there’s no mistake. I’m adding a CSS class in the html but Gutenberg doesn’t like it.

  3. Aboud Dandachi says

    The plugin you mentioned apparently hasnt been tested with the last 3 major releases of WordPress. Would not be a good idea to use it then.

  4. Eduardo says

    Hi, nice article!

    Do you know any way to put a border with a “wood style”?

    I’m making a wordpress site to show landscape photos and i want to use a wood style border so people couldsee how the picture will be as a real photo frame , can you help me with this?

    Thanks!

  5. david says

    Very very talented article not so many people on the net and in wp word know how to make thing simple and clear !

    thanks i got my beautiful nice border set nicely

    dav from france

  6. Erin says

    This looks beautiful, so clean.
    Is there any way to have images and text (with links) within a box on wordpress. Creating a book reviews site so will have to do this many times

  7. Connor Rickett says

    Nice little article. There’s a plugin for every basic thing in WordPress, which is what makes it so friendly to beginners. But, you can dive right into the guts of it if you don’t want to run a plugin for something as small as borders (especially since your site is faster without them).

    It was good of you to show the child theme option, since this will add the borders to all images, past, present, and future.

    You might also mention that, by changing the border width and color, you can create “boxes” and “frames” around the images, using nothing but what you’ve got up here already.

Leave a Reply to WPBeginner Support Cancel reply

Thanks for choosing to leave a comment. Please keep in mind that all comments are moderated according to our comment policy, and your email address will NOT be published. Please Do NOT use keywords in the name field. Let's have a personal and meaningful conversation.

WPBeginner Assistant
How can I help you?

By chatting, you consent to this chat being stored according to our privacy policy and your email will be added to receive weekly WordPress tutorials from WPBeginner.