CSS3 allows you to be creative and experiment with your design to create beautiful and unique web pages. One area of design that CSS lets you work with is typography.
You can use the font family and text shadow properties to create simple but remarkable effects. You may already be familiar with basic CSS text shadow applications. However, you can create a wide variety of styles with these properties.
In this article, you will learn an efficient way to create different text shadow effects using HTML and CSS.
Getting started with HTML and CSS
You can copy and paste these code samples to achieve the text shadow effect you prefer. Start by creating a index.html file and a style.css to file. These are the only files you will need to try out the examples, but you will need to modify both files for each example.
index.html
href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Bowlby+One&display=swap"
rel="stylesheet"
/>
href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Monoton&display=swap"
rel="stylesheet"
/>
href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Bungee+Shade&display=swap"
rel="stylesheet"
/>
href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Rampart+One&display=swap"
rel="stylesheet"
/>
href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Faster+One&display=swap"
rel="stylesheet"
/>
href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Eater&display=swap"
rel="stylesheet"
/>
href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Codystar&display=swap"
rel="stylesheet"
/>
CSS Text Shadow Examples
style.css
body {
text-transform: uppercase;
line-height: 1;
text-align: center;
font-size: 5rem;
display: grid;
gap: 4rem;
}
Now, let’s go over 11 examples of text shadows to try.
Mystical
Mystic is a glassy style giving a cool transition effect without using the transform property. It’s a super simple, yet aesthetic, effect for a bold, growth-oriented website.
To go out
Html
Mystic
CSS
body {
background-color: #5e5555;
}
.mystic {
font-family: 'Bowlby One', cursive;
color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.596);
text-shadow: 20px 0px 10px rgb(0, 0, 0);
}
monotone
This is a fun text effect using the ‘Monoton’ font. You can play around with the text and shadow color to match your website’s primary colors.
To go out
Html
Monoton
CSS
.monoton {
font-family: 'Monoton', cursive;
font-size: 15rem;
color: rgb(255, 0, 0);
opacity: 0.5;
text-shadow: 0px -78px rgb(255, 196, 0);
}Elastic
It’s a cool style using the “Bungee Shade” font. Combined with a dark background, it produces a raw effect with a sense of suspicion.
To go out
Html
Bungee
CSS
body {
background-color: #222;
}
.bungee {
font-family: 'Bungee Shade', cursive;
color: rgb(160, 12, 12);
opacity: 0.9;
text-shadow: -18px 18px 0 rgb(66, 45, 45);
}Radioactive
You can use this effect for warning or danger signs. He uses the ‘Rampart One’ font.
To go out
Html
Radioactive
CSS
body {
background-color: #27292d;
}
.radioactive {
font-family: 'Rampart One', cursive;
color: rgb(97, 214, 43);
opacity: 0.6;
text-shadow: -18px -18px 20px rgb(87, 255, 9);
}Sprint
This running text effect uses the ‘Faster One’ font, the text shadow property, and a ::after pseudo-element with the same content as the text. This creates a “doubling” effect.
To go out
Html
Sprint
CSS
body {
background-color: #27292d;
}
.sprint {
font-family: 'Faster One', cursive;
font-size: 10rem;
color: rgba(255, 0, 242, 0.322);
text-shadow: -20px -108px 0px rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.445);
letter-spacing: 1rem;
position: relative;
}
.sprint::after {
content: 'sprint';
position: absolute;
top: 215px;
right: 300px;
}
Thorny
This horrible prickly text effect uses the “Eater” font. You can try to shift the text shadow down right instead.
To go out
Html
Prickly
CSS
.prickly {
font-family: 'Eater', cursive;
text-shadow: -18px -18px 2px #777;
}Codystar
Text shadow can act as a blurry but visible outline of text. This light effect works wonders with the “Codystar” font.
To go out
Html
Codystar
CSS
.codystar {
font-family: 'Codystar', cursive;
font-weight: bold;
color: rgb(55, 58, 255);
text-shadow: 1px 1px 10px rgb(16, 72, 255), 1px 1px 10px rgb(0, 195, 255);
}
Kingdom
You can achieve authoritative typography with this shadow effect. He uses the ::before pseudo-element and the transform property of tilting the shadow.
To go out
Html
Kingdom
CSS
body {
background-color: #5e5555;
}
.kingdom {
color: white;
font-family: Impact, Haettenschweiler, 'Arial Narrow Bold', sans-serif;
font-size: 10rem;
line-height: 1;
text-align: center;
}
.kingdom--shadow::before {
color: #000;
content: attr(data-text);
margin-top: 0.7rem;
position: absolute;
transform: perspective(205px) rotateX(38deg) scale(0.84);
z-index: -1;
}Encoder
This bright and positive text shadow effect conveys a conscious and motivated website personality. You can add it to your website to produce a simple smokey look.
To go out
Html
Eat
Sleep
Code
Repeat
CSS
body {
background-color: #5e5555;
}
div {
font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Tahoma, sans-serif;
padding: 40px;
margin: 0px auto;
font-weight: bold;
line-height: 5.8rem;
text-align: left;
color: rgb(94, 94, 94);
}
.coder-life {
text-shadow: 5px 5px #ffff00;
filter: drop-shadow(-10px 10px 20px #fff000);
}
Elegant
If you like minimalism, this text shadow effect is perfect for you. Since it uses a large font size, we have reduced the letter spacing and applied on text shadow property to create this effect.
Exit
Html
s
h
r
a
d
d
h
a
CSS
.elegant {
font-family: Impact, Haettenschweiler, 'Arial Narrow Bold', sans-serif;
font-size: 10rem;
letter-spacing: -1rem;
color: white;
text-shadow: -18px 8px 18px #b4bbbb;
}Playful
The thin and bold outline makes this text attractive and lively. You can play with the text shadow property without blur ray at different positions. Text shadows apply to all characters, including HTML entities such as ♥. You can use a character entities reference table to explore further.
Exit
Html
Coding is ♥
CSS
.playful {
font-family: 'Baloo Tamma', cursive;
color: #fff;
letter-spacing: 0.2rem;
text-shadow: -2px -2px 0px #888,
4px 4px 0px #888,
7px 7px 0px #888;
}Keep experimenting with the advanced shadow effects
Text shadows are a simple and effective way to improve your website design and make your website look attractive. You can also experiment with different shadow effects. You can read more about drop shadow effects to continue your CSS journey.
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