diff --git a/common/draw.c b/common/draw.c
index d2a174429..8167d840d 100644
--- a/common/draw.c
+++ b/common/draw.c
@@ -216,25 +216,39 @@ draw_markup_on_element(markup_parser_data_t *p, const char *elem,
 
     /* hack: markup.c validates tags so we can avoid strcmps here */
     switch (*elem) {
-      case 'b': /* bg */
-        for(; *names; names++, values++)
-            switch(a_tokenize(*names, -1))
-            {
-              case A_TK_COLOR:
-                data->has_bg_color = xcolor_init(&data->bg_color, data->connection, data->phys_screen, *values);
-                break;
-              case A_TK_IMAGE:
-                if(data->bg_image)
-                    draw_image_delete(&data->bg_image);
-                data->bg_image = draw_image_new(*values);
-                break;
-              case A_TK_ALIGN:
-                data->bg_align = draw_align_fromstr(*values, -1);
-              case A_TK_RESIZE:
-                data->bg_resize = a_strtobool(*values, -1);
-              default:
-                break;
-            }
+      case 'b':
+        if(elem[1] == 'g') /* bg */
+            for(; *names; names++, values++)
+                switch(a_tokenize(*names, -1))
+                {
+                  case A_TK_COLOR:
+                    data->has_bg_color = xcolor_init(&data->bg_color, data->connection, data->phys_screen, *values);
+                    break;
+                  case A_TK_IMAGE:
+                    if(data->bg_image)
+                        draw_image_delete(&data->bg_image);
+                    data->bg_image = draw_image_new(*values);
+                    break;
+                  case A_TK_ALIGN:
+                    data->bg_align = draw_align_fromstr(*values, -1);
+                  case A_TK_RESIZE:
+                    data->bg_resize = a_strtobool(*values, -1);
+                  default:
+                    break;
+                }
+        else /* border */
+            for(; *names; names++, values++)
+                switch(a_tokenize(*names, -1))
+                {
+                  case A_TK_COLOR:
+                    xcolor_init(&data->border.color, data->connection, data->phys_screen, *values);
+                    break;
+                  case A_TK_WIDTH:
+                    data->border.width = atoi(*values);
+                    break;
+                  default:
+                    break;
+                }
         break;
       case 't': /* text */
         for(; *names; names++, values++)
@@ -275,7 +289,7 @@ static bool
 draw_text_markup_expand(draw_parser_data_t *data,
                         const char *str, ssize_t slen)
 {
-    static char const * const elements[] = { "bg", "text", "margin", NULL };
+    static char const * const elements[] = { "bg", "text", "margin", "border", NULL };
     markup_parser_data_t p =
     {
         .elements   = elements,
@@ -342,6 +356,9 @@ draw_text(draw_context_t *ctx, font_t *font,
     if(pdata->has_bg_color)
         draw_rectangle(ctx, area, 1.0, true, &pdata->bg_color);
 
+    if(pdata->border.width > 0)
+        draw_rectangle(ctx, area, pdata->border.width, false, &pdata->border.color);
+
     if(pdata->bg_image)
     {
         x = area.x;
diff --git a/common/draw.h b/common/draw.h
index 5729c6393..2a14b2b81 100644
--- a/common/draw.h
+++ b/common/draw.h
@@ -189,6 +189,11 @@ typedef struct
         int offset;
         xcolor_t color;
     } shadow;
+    struct
+    {
+        int width;
+        xcolor_t color;
+    } border;
 } draw_parser_data_t;
 
 void draw_parser_data_init(draw_parser_data_t *);