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Shuvo
Shuvo

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Box shadow vs. drop shadow in CSS

We all know that we can use box-shadow to add shadows to our HTML elements. eg

.box{
    box-shadow: 2px 3px 10px rgba(0, 0, 0, .5);
}
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CSS box shadow

But did you know that we can achieve the same using drop-shadow filter. You simply have to pass the shadow value in the drop-shadow function

.box{
    filter: drop-shadow(2px 3px 10px rgba(0, 0, 0, .5));
}
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CSS drop shadow filter

Although in this example both box-shadow and drop-shadow does the same thing. But if we were to add box-shadow on a PNG image you will see the shape of box-shadow is rectangular/box.

img{
  box-shadow: 2px 3px 10px rgba(0, 0, 0, .5);
}
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CSS box shadow on png image
While if we add drop-shadow to a PNG, the shape of the shadow will be same as the shape of the visible area of the PNG.

img{
    filter: drop-shadow(2px 3px 10px rgba(0, 0, 0, .5));
}
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CSS drop shadow filter on png image

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Top comments (23)

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boyney profile image
Boyne

I didn’t even know drop shadows existed until now

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0shuvo0 profile image
Shuvo

Hope you have a lot of fun with it

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baenencalin profile image
Calin Baenen

If I recall correctly, being rectangle/conforming to visible shape also applies to text, and other things with possible transparency, doesn't it?

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0shuvo0 profile image
Shuvo

Yes
You cab use text-shadow instead of box-shadow for texts btw

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andrewbaisden profile image
Andrew Baisden

Nicely explained.

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0shuvo0 profile image
Shuvo

Many many Thanks 💖

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chema profile image
José María CL

omg!

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sintoparava profile image
Sinto PV

Great

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bpsagar profile image
Sagar Chakravarthy

TIL 🙏

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code_rabbi profile image
Emeka Orji

Amazing discovery! Thanks

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astrojets profile image
astro-jets

Nice and easy 👌

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0shuvo0 profile image
Shuvo

Thanks 💓

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marwankous profile image
marwankous

it's Very useful, thanks

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0shuvo0 profile image
Shuvo

Glad you liked it

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diannesowards profile image
Dianne Sowards

Your important discussion about Add a Drop Shadow in Photoshop to improve design skills seems accurate to me. Thank you very much.

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akramdk3 profile image
S.G.M Shamim Akram

Thank you for share article ........

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imiahazel profile image
Imia Hazel

Thanks for the new concept. You have explained this elegantly. I have learned something new and achieved my daily goal happily. :)

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0shuvo0 profile image
Shuvo

I am glad I could help <3

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adedking profile image
adedking

Thanks for this. Really needed

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0shuvo0 profile image
Shuvo

You're most welcome

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hobart2967 profile image
Marco Klein

Have you got information about the performance of both solutions?

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madrafj profile image
Ahmad Rafsanjani

Nice info.. many many thanks for sharing

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0shuvo0 profile image
Shuvo

glad you liked it