Box Shadow Generator

The Box Shadow Generator turns CSS box-shadow into five sliders, a color picker and a live preview, so you can shape depth by eye and copy the exact declaration when it looks right.

What is the Box Shadow Generator?

The Box Shadow Generator is a visual builder for the CSS box-shadow property. You drag sliders for horizontal offset, vertical offset, blur radius, spread radius and opacity, pick a shadow color, and a preview square updates in real time while the finished declaration is written out below it. It builds one shadow at a time and hands you the code as plain CSS you can paste into any stylesheet, style attribute or component file.

Key Features

• Sliders for offset-x, offset-y, blur, spread and shadow opacity
• Live preview square redraws instantly as you drag any slider
• Inset checkbox flips the shadow inward for recessed depth
• Eight quick presets from Subtle and Card to Neon Blue
• One-click copy of the finished declaration, ready to paste

Common Use Cases

• Building card, modal and dropdown elevation for a dashboard or landing page
• Matching a shadow from a Figma or Sketch mockup by eye
• Prototyping inset shadows for pressed buttons, input wells and inner borders
• Learning what spread actually changes compared with blur radius

How to Use the Box Shadow Generator

1. Start from a Quick Preset such as Card, Float or Subtle, or begin with the default 10px 10px 20px shadow.
2. Drag Offset X and Offset Y, each ranging from -50 to 50 pixels, to set the direction the light comes from.
3. Raise Blur up to 100 pixels for softness, then use Spread between -50 and 50 to grow or shrink the shadow shape.
4. Pick a Shadow Color, pull the Opacity slider down until the shadow reads as light rather than paint, and set Box Color to match your real component.
5. Tick Inset if the shadow belongs inside the element, then press Copy to put the full box-shadow line on your clipboard.

Tips for Best Results

• Large, soft, low-opacity shadows look natural; small dark ones look like the element was pasted on.
• Keep Offset X at 0 and Offset Y positive so light appears to come from directly above.
• This builds one shadow, but you can paste two generated values into one property, separated by a comma.
• Negative spread paired with a big blur and offset produces that tapered, floating look.

Why Use WiserWork's Box Shadow Generator?

Hand-writing box-shadow means guessing four numbers and an alpha value, saving, reloading and guessing again. Here the preview follows the sliders frame by frame, so you judge the result instead of the syntax, and the output is already formatted with the values in the correct order. Everything runs in your browser, nothing is uploaded, and the tool is free with no account.

Who Uses the Box Shadow Generator?

Front-end developers reach for it when a component needs elevation and the exact numbers do not matter until they look right. Designers use it to translate a shadow from a mockup into real CSS, and people learning CSS use it to see what each of the four length values does before committing them to memory.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does spread do that blur does not?

Spread grows or shrinks the shadow shape itself before any softening is applied, so a positive spread makes the shadow larger than the element and a negative one pulls it in. Blur only feathers the edge without resizing the shape.

Can I build multiple stacked shadows here?

The generator builds one shadow at a time. To layer them for more realistic elevation, create each shadow separately, then paste the values into a single box-shadow property separated by commas.

What ranges do the sliders cover?

Offset X and Offset Y each run from -50 to 50 pixels, blur runs from 0 to 100 pixels, spread from -50 to 50 pixels, and opacity from 0 to 1 in hundredths.

What does the Inset checkbox change?

It adds the inset keyword to the front of the value, which paints the shadow inside the element's padding box instead of outside it. That is how you get pressed buttons, recessed panels and inner glow effects.

Why is the output rgba instead of my hex color?

The color picker supplies a hex value and opacity is a separate slider, so the tool converts the hex to red, green and blue channels and appends the alpha. That keeps color and transparency independently adjustable.

What order do the box-shadow values go in?

The order is offset-x, offset-y, blur radius, spread radius, then color, with an optional inset keyword. The two offsets are required; blur and spread default to 0 if you leave them out.

How is box-shadow different from the drop-shadow filter?

box-shadow follows the element's rectangle and its border-radius, so it always outlines a box shape. The drop-shadow filter follows the actual painted pixels, which is what you want for transparent PNGs, SVG icons and clipped shapes.

Do shadows work in dark mode?

Black shadows nearly disappear on a dark background because there is little contrast left to lose. On dark themes, lift elements with a lighter surface color, a subtle border, or a low-opacity colored glow instead.

Is animating box-shadow bad for performance?

Animating the shadow values forces a repaint on every frame, which can stutter on long lists or low-powered devices. A smoother pattern is to put the finished shadow on a pseudo-element and animate its opacity, or animate transform for the lift.

Does a box-shadow affect page layout?

No. Shadows paint outside the border box without taking up space, so they never push neighboring elements around or add to the scrollable area. They can be cut off by an ancestor with overflow set to hidden.

Depth in an interface is mostly a matter of restraint: a soft, low-opacity shadow offset downward reads far better than a hard dark one. Use the sliders to find that balance visually, then copy the declaration straight into your stylesheet.