CSS Text Shadow & Glow Generator

A CSS text shadow generator is an online tool for building text-shadow values without typing them from scratch. Set the horizontal offset, vertical offset, blur, color, and opacity, preview the effect on your own words, and copy the CSS. Extra layers turn that single shadow into a soft drop, a neon glow, extruded 3D type, or a hard outline.

1. Enter the text you want to preview.
2. Choose the text color, font and size.
3. Adjust X offset, Y offset, blur, color and opacity.
4. Add more shadow layers for glow, neon, 3D or outline effects.
5. Choose a preset or customize the layers manually.
6. Copy the CSS, Tailwind class or HTML.

The preview and the CSS tab share one computed value. If a layer is switched off, it leaves both the preview and the copied rule.

The property takes one or more shadows:

text-shadow: offset-x offset-y blur-radius color;

• Positive X moves the shadow right. Negative X moves it left.
• Positive Y moves the shadow down. Negative Y moves it up.
• A blur of 0 keeps a hard edge. A larger blur spreads the color into a softer fringe.
• Color can be a hex value or rgba() when you need opacity.
• Zero offsets with a wide blur are the usual way to make glow text CSS.
• Several shadows are separated by commas.

Multiple text shadows are painted front to back. The first shadow in the list is on top, and each later shadow is painted behind it. This page writes layers in that order: layer 1 is the front shadow.

text-shadow has no spread radius and no inset keyword. Those belong to box-shadow. For the corner shape of a button or card, use the CSS border radius generator.

Soft shadow

A short offset and a small blur sit behind headlines without looking like a sticker.

text-shadow: 2px 2px 4px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);

Glow

Three centered blurs in one color make a halo. The tight layer is the core; the wide layer is the fade.

text-shadow:
  0 0 8px #00e5ff,
  0 0 20px #00e5ff,
  0 0 40px #00e5ff;

3D text

Hard copies of the letter, stepped down and right, read as an extruded edge.

text-shadow:
  2px 2px 0 #222,
  4px 4px 0 #444,
  6px 6px 0 #666;

Outline

Four hard shadows on the axes fake a stroke. Add the diagonals if the edge looks thin on curves.

text-shadow:
  1px 0 0 #000,
  -1px 0 0 #000,
  0 1px 0 #000,
  0 -1px 0 #000;

Create a soft text shadow

Start with the Soft Drop Shadow preset, then nudge X and Y until the light direction matches the rest of the page. Keep opacity under about 40 percent for body-sized headings. This is the everyday CSS text shadow, and the same values work as a text shadow CSS generator result you can paste into any stylesheet.

Create glowing text in CSS

A text glow generator is the same property with the offsets at zero. Match the shadow color to the fill, or sit a brighter core inside a dimmer halo. Switch the preview to the dark surface when you are judging a glow; on a light surface the fringe has less room to show.

Create a neon text effect

Neon text CSS needs more than one layer. Use a near-white fill, a tight colored blur, and at least one wider blur in the same family. Electric Glow and Fire Glow are starting points for gaming UI, posters, and hero banners. Pair a colored fill with the CSS gradient generator when the letters themselves should shift color.

Create 3D text with text-shadow

The 3D Text preset stacks three hard shadows. Duplicate a layer and add 2px to both offsets to lengthen the extrusion. Leave blur at 0 or the edge turns into a smear. A long shadow is the same idea taken further: eight 1px steps in one direction.

Create a text outline with CSS

The Outline preset places a 1px shadow on each side. It stays readable on photos and checkerboard previews because the stroke does not depend on the surface color. It is still a shadow stack, so very large type can show small gaps on curves.

Stack multiple text shadows

Add up to eight layers, duplicate one, and move it up or down. Put the crisp shadow first if it should sit in front of a wide glow. The Tailwind tab turns that list into one arbitrary class, with underscores where the CSS has spaces, so a Tailwind project can use the same effect.

Need a shadow on the box around a control, including spread or an inner shadow? Use the CSS Box Shadow Generator. For the label inside a control, stay on this page. Button chrome, hover, and radius live in the CSS button generator.

• Using box-shadow when the shadow should follow the letters, or the reverse.
• Pushing blur so high that the word becomes a cloud. Drop the blur before you add another layer.
• Expecting one soft layer to look like neon. Neon wants a tight core and wider halos.
• Forgetting negative offsets, so every shadow falls down-right.
• Putting a decorative glow on paragraphs. Reserve it for headings, logos, and short labels.
• Letting the fill and the surface sit too close. Check them in the color contrast checker.
• Copying a broken declaration. This tool only writes offset, blur, and color.
• Clipping the fringe with overflow: hidden or a tight line box. Add padding and let the glow paint outside the letters.

Multiple large blur layers can increase painting cost, especially during animation or frequent updates. A static heading with a few layers is rarely the problem.

Hero headings, landing-page titles, neon-style interfaces, gaming UI, poster type, logo lockups, social graphics, and UI prototypes all use the same property. Frontend work is usually a class in a stylesheet. A Tailwind project can take the arbitrary class from the Tailwind tab. If the type sizes need a scale first, set that in the typography scale generator, then bring the chosen size back here.

A CSS filter blurs or recolors the whole element, including the fill. A text shadow only adds paint around the glyphs. When the effect should be a filter rather than a shadow, use the CSS filter generator.

Shadow is decoration. The text still needs a contrast relationship with the surface behind it, and the preview warns when that ratio is under 4.5:1. Do not use a glow as the only sign of focus or error. On a real site, keep a visible focus ring on links and buttons. People who set prefers-reduced-motion are unaffected by this static preview; if you animate the shadow later, pause that animation for them.

• CSS Box Shadow Generator for element shadows, spread, and inset.
• CSS Gradient Generator for fills behind or inside the letters.
• CSS Filter Generator for blur, brightness, and other element filters.
• CSS Button Generator for button chrome around a label.
• Border Radius Generator for the box corners.
• Typography Scale Generator for a consistent set of font sizes.
• Color Contrast Checker for the fill against its background.
• Clip Path Generator when the next step is masking a shape, not the type.