If one uses \setuplayout[header][text][frame=on] then the frame is drawn on pages with header=empty but not drawn on pages with header=high. By default, the 'empty' pagebreak method (in page-txt.mkvi) sets the header and footer state to empty rather than high. This means that header frames are drawn on empty pages. For example, see attached file. Would it make sense to change the definition in page-txt.mkvi to the following: \installpagebreakmethod \v!empty {\page_otr_flush_all_floats \page_otr_command_next_page \doifnot{\namedlayoutelementparameter\v!header\c!state}\v!stop{\setuplayoutelement[\v!header][\c!state=\v!high]}% \doifnot{\namedlayoutelementparameter\v!footer\c!state}\v!stop{\setuplayoutelement[\v!footer][\c!state=\v!high]}% \page_otr_insert_dummy_page} \installpagebreakmethod \v!header {\doifnot{\namedlayoutelementparameter\v!header\c!state}\v!stop{\setuplayoutelement[\v!header][\c!state=\v!high]}} \installpagebreakmethod \v!footer {\doifnot{\namedlayoutelementparameter\v!footer\c!state}\v!stop{\setuplayoutelement[\v!footer][\c!state=\v!high]}} or, if that is too drastic of a change, create a new pagebreakmethod called high. This request is motivated by: http://tex.stackexchange.com/q/110701/323 Aditya