Text Shadow Generator
Build a CSS text-shadow with live preview on your own text, adjusting offset, blur and colour visually.
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Tool guide
What this tool does
Text Shadow Generator lets you preview a CSS text-shadow directly on your own text, adjusting horizontal/vertical offset, blur radius and colour (including opacity) visually, with the final text-shadow CSS ready to copy.
Getting a text-shadow’s offset, blur and colour/opacity combination to look right usually means repeated trial and error in a browser dev tool, tedious without a dedicated live preview.
This tool previews the shadow directly on text you type in, with sliders for offset, blur and a colour picker with adjustable opacity, giving you the final text-shadow CSS once it looks right.
How to use Text Shadow Generator
- Type or paste your preview text.
- Adjust the offset X/Y and blur radius sliders.
- Pick a shadow colour and opacity.
- Copy the generated CSS.
Tips for better results
- A small offset with low blur creates a crisp, hard drop-shadow effect, useful for improving text readability over a busy background image.
- Zero offset with a larger blur radius creates a soft "glow" effect around the text instead of a directional shadow.
- For a bold, layered 3D or outline text effect, stack several text-shadow declarations with small, incremental offsets and the same colour, this tool generates one layer at a time; combine several generated values with commas to stack them.
- Lower opacity values generally look more natural for subtle depth; very dark, fully opaque shadows can look heavy-handed except for deliberately bold stylistic effects.
Common use cases
- Improving text readability and contrast over a busy or colourful background image.
- Creating a soft glow effect around text for a decorative heading.
- Building the individual shadow layer values needed for a layered 3D text effect.
- Experimenting with text-shadow values on your actual content before committing to a final design.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Using a very large blur with a fully opaque dark colour, producing a heavy, muddy effect rather than a subtle shadow; lower the opacity for a cleaner look.
- Forgetting that multiple text-shadow layers (for a 3D/outline effect) need to be manually combined with commas, since this tool generates one layer’s value at a time.
- Applying a text shadow to small body text, where it often reduces readability rather than improving it; text shadows generally work best on larger headings or text over busy backgrounds specifically.
Frequently asked questions
How do I create a glow effect instead of a drop shadow?
Set the offset X and Y both to 0 and increase the blur radius; with no directional offset, the shadow surrounds the text evenly, reading as a glow rather than a cast shadow.
How do I make a layered 3D text effect?
Generate several individual shadow values with small, incremental offsets (and typically the same colour), then combine them with commas in your actual CSS, this tool produces one layer’s value at a time.
Does text-shadow affect layout or spacing?
No, like box-shadow, it’s purely visual and doesn’t change the element’s layout box size or affect surrounding elements’ positions.
Is this generated locally?
Yes, this whole tool runs entirely client-side in your browser; no text or settings you enter are ever sent anywhere.
Feedback & suggestions
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