Hello Patrick, I ran you example and it's a significant improvement on my attempt -- I knew I had the hairline in the wrong position, but didn't know how to fix it. ----- \definedescription [Note] [headstyle=\sc, style=small, width=fit, distance=10pt, hang=20, before={\startnarrower\starttextbackground[NoteA]}, after={\stoptextbackground\stopnarrower}] \definetextbackground[NoteA][frame=off,location=paragraph] \startuseMPgraphic{mpos:par:columnset} path p; for i := 1 upto nofmultipars : p := multipars[i]; if multilocs[i] = 1 : % top draw topboundary p; elseif multilocs [i] = 3 : %bottom draw bottomboundary p; fi endfor ; \stopuseMPgraphic \starttext \Note{important} \input tufte\par \blank[medium] \dorecurse{3}{\input tufte } \blank[medium] A line of text \blank[medium] \Note{warning} \input tufte\par \blank[medium] \dorecurse{3}{\input tufte} \stoptext ----- 'Time to crack open the metafun book (even though I've a sinking feeling that I'll be as old as Mathusala before I actually understand what you've done).