Box Shadow CSS Generator
Visual tool to create beautiful, layered, and professional CSS box-shadows. Adjust offsets, blur, spread, and transparency in real-time.
How to Use the Box Shadow Generator
- Offsets: Move the Horizontal and Vertical sliders to position your shadow.
- Blur & Spread: Adjust the Blur to soften edges, and Spread to increase or decrease the physical size of the shadow.
- Color & Opacity: Pick a shadow color and fade it using the opacity slider for a natural look.
- Inset Option: Toggle "Inset" to place the shadow inside the box instead of outside.
- Copy CSS: Real-time code generation allows you to copy and paste directly into your CSS files.
The Secret to Professional Shadows
Modern UI design (like Material Design or Apple's Human Interface Guidelines) rarely uses pure black shadows at full opacity. The secret to professional "depth" is using low-opacity shadows (usually between 0.05 and 0.2) combined with high blur values.
Another trick is to match the shadow color to the background or the element itself, rather than using #000. This creates a much softer and more integrated "glow" effect.
Box-Shadow Syntax Explained
The standard CSS property follows this order:
h-offset: Horizontal distance (positive = right, negative = left).v-offset: Vertical distance (positive = bottom, negative = top).blur: Higher numbers create a blurrier, larger shadow.spread: Increases or decreases the size of the shadow.color: The color of the shadow, usually in rgba() for transparency.inset: Optional keyword to flip the shadow inward.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the "Spread" property?
Think of spread as adding "padding" to the shadow. A positive spread makes the shadow larger than the element itself, while a negative spread makes it smaller (useful for "lifted edge" effects).
Can I use multiple shadows?
Yes, CSS supports multiple shadows separated by commas. While this generator handles one primary shadow, you can stack them manually for even more complex lighting effects.
Does box-shadow affect performance?
Heavy use of large blur radiuses can sometimes affect rendering performance on low-end mobile devices, as it requires the GPU to calculate complex gradients for every frame during scrolling.
Is inset shadow useful for inputs?
Absolutely! Inset shadows are commonly used to create "pressed" button states or to give text input fields a sense of being recessed into the page.