diff --git a/csharp-version/src/MarkdownToDocx.Core/OpenXml/OpenXmlDocumentBuilder.cs b/csharp-version/src/MarkdownToDocx.Core/OpenXml/OpenXmlDocumentBuilder.cs
index baa37d3..ff1bb7d 100644
--- a/csharp-version/src/MarkdownToDocx.Core/OpenXml/OpenXmlDocumentBuilder.cs
+++ b/csharp-version/src/MarkdownToDocx.Core/OpenXml/OpenXmlDocumentBuilder.cs
@@ -1341,47 +1341,40 @@ private void AddTableSpacer(string spacing)
 
     /// <summary>
     /// Adds a "before" spacer in front of a block element (table or quote-table)
-    /// while collapsing against an immediately preceding spacer paragraph. When
-    /// the previous body element is already an empty spacer paragraph (typically
-    /// the after-spacer of a sibling table/quote-table), the larger of the two
-    /// requested gaps is preserved instead of stacking two paragraphs. This
-    /// prevents the visible whitespace doubling reported when adjacent ::: note
-    /// blocks render as single-cell tables.
+    /// while collapsing against the immediately preceding paragraph's SpaceAfter.
+    /// CSS-like margin-collapse: if the previous body element is any paragraph
+    /// that already supplies a positive trailing gap (the after-spacer of a
+    /// sibling table/quote-table, a heading rendered as a single paragraph, or
+    /// regular body text with SpaceAfter), the requested before-spacing is
+    /// folded into that paragraph as max(existing, desired) rather than stacked
+    /// as a second paragraph. This prevents an extra blank line between a
+    /// heading/text and a following table/quote-table.
     /// </summary>
     private void AddCollapsingBeforeSpacer(string spacing)
     {
         if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(spacing) || spacing == "0") return;
 
-        if (_body.LastChild is Paragraph prev && IsBodySpacerParagraph(prev))
+        if (_body.LastChild is Paragraph prev)
         {
-            var existingSpacing = prev.ParagraphProperties!.GetFirstChild<SpacingBetweenLines>()!;
-            int existing = ParseTwipsOrZero(existingSpacing.After?.Value);
-            int desired = ParseTwipsOrZero(spacing);
-            if (desired > existing)
+            var existingSpacing = prev.ParagraphProperties?.GetFirstChild<SpacingBetweenLines>();
+            if (existingSpacing != null)
             {
-                existingSpacing.After = desired.ToString(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
+                int existingAfter = ParseTwipsOrZero(existingSpacing.After?.Value);
+                if (existingAfter > 0)
+                {
+                    int desired = ParseTwipsOrZero(spacing);
+                    if (desired > existingAfter)
+                    {
+                        existingSpacing.After = desired.ToString(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
+                    }
+                    return;
+                }
             }
-            return;
         }
 
         AddTableSpacer(spacing);
     }
 
-    /// <summary>
-    /// Returns true if the paragraph is one of our body-level spacer paragraphs:
-    /// no runs/hyperlinks and a SpacingBetweenLines element with Before="0" and a
-    /// non-empty After value. Heading after-spacers also match this shape, which
-    /// is intentional — collapsing against them preserves the larger gap.
-    /// </summary>
-    private static bool IsBodySpacerParagraph(Paragraph p)
-    {
-        if (p.Elements<Run>().Any()) return false;
-        if (p.Elements<Hyperlink>().Any()) return false;
-        var spacing = p.ParagraphProperties?.GetFirstChild<SpacingBetweenLines>();
-        if (spacing == null) return false;
-        return spacing.Before?.Value == "0" && !string.IsNullOrEmpty(spacing.After?.Value);
-    }
-
     /// <summary>
     /// Creates TableProperties with percentage-based width (overflow safety net) and
     /// fixed layout so Word honours the tblGrid column widths.
diff --git a/csharp-version/tests/MarkdownToDocx.Tests/Unit/OpenXmlDocumentBuilderTests.cs b/csharp-version/tests/MarkdownToDocx.Tests/Unit/OpenXmlDocumentBuilderTests.cs
index a0b68ff..fca05ae 100644
--- a/csharp-version/tests/MarkdownToDocx.Tests/Unit/OpenXmlDocumentBuilderTests.cs
+++ b/csharp-version/tests/MarkdownToDocx.Tests/Unit/OpenXmlDocumentBuilderTests.cs
@@ -831,6 +831,93 @@ public void AddQuote_AdjacentTableQuotes_ShouldKeepLargerCollapsedSpacing()
             "the gap should collapse to max(prev.SpaceAfter, next.SpaceBefore)");
     }
 
+    [Fact]
+    public void AddQuote_AfterHeading_ShouldCollapseAgainstHeadingSpaceAfter()
+    {
+        // Arrange: H2 single-paragraph (default ShowBorder=false → AddHeadingSingleParagraph)
+        // followed by a table-rendered quote (BG + PaddingSpace). Issue #78: heading's
+        // SpaceAfter and quote's SpaceBefore must collapse so no extra blank paragraph
+        // sits between them.
+        using var builder = new OpenXmlDocumentBuilder(_stream, _horizontalProvider);
+        var headingStyle = CreateDefaultHeadingStyle() with
+        {
+            SpaceBefore = "480",
+            SpaceAfter = "280"
+        };
+        var quoteStyle = CreateDefaultQuoteStyle() with
+        {
+            BackgroundColor = "fdf0ed",
+            PaddingSpace = 6,
+            SpaceBefore = "160",
+            SpaceAfter = "160"
+        };
+
+        // Act
+        builder.AddHeading(2, "Summary", headingStyle);
+        builder.AddQuote(ToQuoteContent("note"), quoteStyle);
+        builder.Save();
+
+        // Assert: body sequence is heading-paragraph, then table — no spurious spacer.
+        _stream.Position = 0;
+        using var doc = WordprocessingDocument.Open(_stream, false);
+        var bodyChildren = doc.MainDocumentPart!.Document.Body!.ChildElements.ToList();
+
+        var headingIdx = bodyChildren.FindIndex(c =>
+            c is Paragraph p && p.Descendants<Text>().Any(t => t.Text == "Summary"));
+        headingIdx.Should().BeGreaterOrEqualTo(0, "the heading paragraph should be in the body");
+
+        var tableIdx = bodyChildren.FindIndex(headingIdx + 1, c => c is Table);
+        tableIdx.Should().Be(headingIdx + 1,
+            "no spacer paragraph should be inserted between the heading and the quote-table");
+
+        // The heading's SpaceAfter must have absorbed (max) the quote's SpaceBefore.
+        var headingParagraph = (Paragraph)bodyChildren[headingIdx];
+        var headingSpacing = headingParagraph.ParagraphProperties!.GetFirstChild<SpacingBetweenLines>()!;
+        headingSpacing.After!.Value.Should().Be("280",
+            "max(headingSpaceAfter=280, quoteSpaceBefore=160) = 280");
+    }
+
+    [Fact]
+    public void AddQuote_AfterHeading_ShouldGrowHeadingSpaceAfterWhenQuoteWantsLargerGap()
+    {
+        // Arrange: quote demands a larger gap than the heading's own SpaceAfter — the
+        // heading paragraph's After should grow (not stack a new spacer).
+        using var builder = new OpenXmlDocumentBuilder(_stream, _horizontalProvider);
+        var headingStyle = CreateDefaultHeadingStyle() with
+        {
+            SpaceBefore = "240",
+            SpaceAfter = "100"
+        };
+        var quoteStyle = CreateDefaultQuoteStyle() with
+        {
+            BackgroundColor = "fdf0ed",
+            PaddingSpace = 6,
+            SpaceBefore = "320",
+            SpaceAfter = "160"
+        };
+
+        // Act
+        builder.AddHeading(3, "Section", headingStyle);
+        builder.AddQuote(ToQuoteContent("body"), quoteStyle);
+        builder.Save();
+
+        // Assert
+        _stream.Position = 0;
+        using var doc = WordprocessingDocument.Open(_stream, false);
+        var bodyChildren = doc.MainDocumentPart!.Document.Body!.ChildElements.ToList();
+
+        var headingIdx = bodyChildren.FindIndex(c =>
+            c is Paragraph p && p.Descendants<Text>().Any(t => t.Text == "Section"));
+        var tableIdx = bodyChildren.FindIndex(headingIdx + 1, c => c is Table);
+
+        tableIdx.Should().Be(headingIdx + 1, "still no spacer paragraph between");
+
+        var headingSpacing = ((Paragraph)bodyChildren[headingIdx])
+            .ParagraphProperties!.GetFirstChild<SpacingBetweenLines>()!;
+        headingSpacing.After!.Value.Should().Be("320",
+            "max(100, 320) = 320 — heading's After is grown to satisfy the quote's request");
+    }
+
     [Fact]
     public void AddTable_AdjacentTables_ShouldCollapseSpacersToSingleParagraph()
     {