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Effects · Generator

Text Shadow Generator

Create eye-catching text shadows with multiple layers and effects.

Presets

Text Settings

48px

Shadow Layers

Layer 1

2px
2px
4px

Preview

Text Shadow
Generated CSS
text-shadow: 2px 2px 4px #00000050;
color: #1e293b;
font-size: 48px;
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Code written
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CSS instantly
What is this

What is the CSS Text Shadow Generator?

Generate CSS text-shadow values with visual controls. Create single shadows, glow effects, and layered text depth effects.

Everything runs locally in your browser. Adjust the controls above, preview instantly, and copy clean, production-ready CSS — no account, no upload.

How to use

Using the CSS Text Shadow Generator

Everything lives in the panel at the top of this page. There is nothing to install — it all runs right here in your browser.

1

Set shadow offset and blur

Adjust the horizontal offset, vertical offset, and blur radius. A blur of 0 creates a hard-edged shadow. Higher blur creates a glow.

2

Set shadow colour

Choose a shadow colour. For legibility shadows, use rgba black at low opacity. For glows, use a saturated colour near the text colour.

3

Add layers and copy

Stack multiple shadows for neon glow effects. Click Copy to get the complete text-shadow value.

The output

What the generated code looks like

Clean, production-ready CSS — no vendor bloat, no unnecessary declarations.

styles.css
/* Subtle legibility shadow */
.hero-text {
  text-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
}

/* Neon glow */
.neon {
  color: #a5f3fc;
  text-shadow:
    0 0 10px #22d3ee,
    0 0 20px #22d3ee,
    0 0 40px #0891b2;
}

/* Embossed / letterpress */
.embossed {
  color: #475569;
  text-shadow: 0 1px 0 rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.7);
}

text-shadow works on all text elements. It does not respect border-radius or overflow - use filter: drop-shadow() for shape-aware shadows on masked text.

Pro tips

Pro tips for better results

Subtle shadows improve text legibility on images

A 0 1px 3px rgba(0,0,0,0.5) shadow on white text over a photo improves contrast without needing a solid overlay. Keep blur under 4px for readability.

Neon glow requires 2-3 stacked shadows

One shadow at 0px blur creates a hard glow. Stack a second at larger blur for the diffuse outer glow. Use the same hue as the text colour, slightly more saturated.

Avoid text-shadow on small body text

Shadows on 14-16px text blur the letterforms and reduce legibility, especially on retina screens where the shadow becomes visible as a halo. Use it only on display-size text.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

A 4-directional shadow can simulate a stroke: text-shadow: 1px 1px 0 black, -1px -1px 0 black, 1px -1px 0 black, -1px 1px 0 black. For cleaner results, use -webkit-text-stroke: 1px black (with fallback).
No. Everything runs in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server.

From the blog

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