Hi wolfgang, and thanks for your reply.

Wolfgang Schuster <schuster.wolfgang@googlemail.com> writes:

[trying to get a red leftmargin]

> Make a complete (with text) example where we can see your problem (a
> example of the output could help), I get a red background for the
> left margin.

Here it is. And the output (processed with texexec --lua) is attached.

Thanks for everything.
-AJ

\setuppapersize
        [A5][A4]
\setuparranging
        [2UP,rotated,doublesided]
\setuplayout
        [margin=18mm,
         width=middle,height=middle,
         topspace=0cm,backspace=18mm]
\setupcolors
        [state=start]
\setupbackgrounds
        [text]
        [leftmargin]
        [background=color,backgroundcolor=red]

\showframe
\showgrid

\enableregime[utf]

\starttext

\section{my taylor is rich}
knuthknuth
\page[yes]
\section{God save the Queen}
knuthknuth
\stoptext