CSS Text Shadow Generator
Adjust offset, blur and color for one or more shadow layers and copy the resulting text-shadow CSS — the preview updates as you drag.
Shadow
Options
CSS
text-shadow: 2px 2px 4px rgba(37, 99, 235, 0.6);
Runs entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded.
How it works
- Type your own sample text, then drag the X offset, Y offset, blur and opacity sliders and pick a shadow color — the preview updates instantly.
- Click Add layer to stack more shadows, select any layer chip to edit it, or start from a preset like Neon, Outline or Long shadow.
- Click Copy CSS and paste the generated text-shadow rule into your stylesheet.
Frequently asked questions
- How do multiple text-shadow layers work in CSS?
- The text-shadow property accepts a comma-separated list of shadows, and the browser paints them back to front — the first shadow in the list ends up on top. Stacking layers is how every advanced effect is built: neon signs stack several blurs of increasing radius, and outlines stack offset copies in each direction. This tool writes the comma-separated list for you as you add layers.
- How does the outline effect work if CSS has no text outline?
- CSS has no widely supported text-outline property, so the classic workaround is four sharp shadows with zero blur, offset one pixel toward each diagonal corner. Together they draw a thin edge around every glyph. It looks clean at 1px on regular text; for thicker outlines you need more directions or the non-standard -webkit-text-stroke property.
- How is the long shadow preset generated?
- A long shadow is really a chain of many small shadows: the preset generates about two dozen layers, each offset one more pixel diagonally than the last, with opacity fading as the distance grows. That is why the copied CSS is long — every step is its own shadow. You can still select any individual layer afterward and change its color or offset.
- Does text-shadow affect layout or performance?
- Shadows are painted outside the normal box model, so they never change line height, spacing or element size — though a large blur can be visually clipped by ancestors with overflow hidden. Performance is rarely an issue for headings, but animating dozens of blurred layers on large text can cost paint time on low-end phones, so keep animated shadows simple.
- Is anything I type or design here uploaded?
- No. The tool is a static page that runs entirely in your browser: the preview is ordinary styled text and the CSS string is assembled in JavaScript on your device. There are no network requests, no accounts and nothing stored on a server, which you can confirm in your browser’s developer tools network tab.
About this tool
This text shadow generator builds the CSS text-shadow property visually. You edit a live sample — your own words, on a background color you choose — while sliders control each shadow’s horizontal offset, vertical offset, blur radius, color and opacity. Because text-shadow accepts any number of comma-separated shadows, the tool lets you stack layers: add one, click its chip to select it, tweak it independently, and remove it when it no longer earns its place. The finished rule is printed below the preview and one click copies it to your clipboard.
Everything happens client-side. The preview is real DOM text styled with the exact rule you are copying, not an image approximation, so what you see is what any modern browser will render. Colors with opacity below 100% are written as rgba() values, fully opaque colors stay as compact hex, and layers appear in the CSS in the same order they are painted. No network requests are made at any point, so unreleased product names or campaign headlines you type as sample text never leave your machine.
The presets cover the effects people most often search for. Subtle adds the soft one-pixel drop that makes light text readable on photos. Glow and Neon stack blurred, saturated layers on a dark background, the way sign-style headings are done. Outline uses the four-direction hack — four sharp one-pixel shadows — to fake a text stroke that works everywhere. Long shadow programmatically generates a diagonal chain of fading layers for the flat-design poster look. Each preset is just a starting state: every generated layer remains editable.
A few practical tips. Keep body-text shadows to one or two pixels of blur — anything more smears small glyphs. For neon effects, set the text color lighter than the innermost shadow so the core reads as the light source. And remember shadows do not affect layout, so a wide long shadow may need extra padding on the parent to avoid being clipped by overflow rules.