box-shadow

Summary

The box-shadow property describes one or more shadow effects as a comma-separated list. It enables you to cast a drop shadow from the frame of almost any element. If a border-radius is specified on the element with a box shadow, the box shadow takes on the same rounded corners. The z-ordering of multiple box shadows is the same as multiple text shadows (the first specified shadow is on top).

Box-shadow generator is an interactive tool allowing you to generate a box-shadow.

Syntax

/* offset-x | offset-y | color */
box-shadow: 60px -16px teal;

/* offset-x | offset-y | blur-radius | color */
box-shadow: 10px 5px 5px black;

/* offset-x | offset-y | blur-radius | spread-radius | color */
box-shadow: 2px 2px 2px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);

/* inset | offset-x | offset-y | color */
box-shadow: inset 5em 1em gold;

/* Any number of shadows, separated by commas */
box-shadow: 3px 3px red, -1em 0 0.4em olive;

Values

inset

If not specified (default), the shadow is assumed to be a drop shadow (as if the box were raised above the content).
The presence of the inset keyword changes the shadow to one inside the frame (as if the content was depressed inside the box). Inset shadows are drawn inside the border (even transparent ones), above the background, but below content.

<offset-x> <offset-y>

These are two <length> values to set the shadow offset. <offset-x> specifies the horizontal distance. Negative values place the shadow to the left of the element. <offset-y> specifies the vertical distance. Negative values place the shadow above the element. See <length> for possible units.
If both values are 0, the shadow is placed behind the element (and may generate a blur effect if <blur-radius> and/or <spread-radius> is set).

<blur-radius>

This is a third <length> value. The larger this value, the bigger the blur, so the shadow becomes bigger and lighter. Negative values are not allowed. If not specified, it will be 0 (the shadow's edge is sharp). The specification does not include an exact algorithm for how the blur radius should be calculated, however, it does elaborate as follows:

…for a long, straight shadow edge, this should create a color transition the length of the blur distance that is perpendicular to and centered on the shadow’s edge, and that ranges from the full shadow color at the radius endpoint inside the shadow to fully transparent at the endpoint outside it.

<spread-radius>

This is a fourth <length> value. Positive values will cause the shadow to expand and grow bigger, negative values will cause the shadow to shrink. If not specified, it will be 0 (the shadow will be the same size as the element).

<color>

See <color> values for possible keywords and notations.
If not specified, the color used depends on the browser - it is usually the value of the color property, but note that Safari currently paints a transparent shadow in this case.

Interpolation

Each shadow in the list (treating none as a 0-length list) is interpolated via the color (as color) component, and x, y, blur, and (when appropriate) spread (as length) components. For each shadow, if both input shadows are or are not inset, then the interpolated shadow must match the input shadows in that regard. If any pair of input shadows has one inset and the other not inset, the entire shadow list is uninterpolable. If the lists of shadows have different lengths, then the shorter list is padded at the end with shadows whose color is transparent, all lengths are 0, and whose inset (or not) matches the longer list.

Formal syntax

none | <shadow>#
where 
<shadow> = inset? && <length>{2,4} && <color>?
where 
<color> = <rgb()> | <rgba()> | <hsl()> | <hsla()> | <hex-color> | <named-color> | currentcolor | <deprecated-system-color>
where 
<rgb()> = rgb( <rgb-component>#{3} )
<rgba()> = rgba( <rgb-component>#{3} , <alpha-value> )
<hsl()> = hsl( <hue>, <percentage>, <percentage> )
<hsla()> = hsla( <hue>, <percentage>, <percentage>, <alpha-value> )
<named-color> = <ident>
<deprecated-system-color> = ActiveBorder | ActiveCaption | AppWorkspace | Background | ButtonFace | ButtonHighlight | ButtonShadow | ButtonText | CaptionText | GrayText | Highlight | HighlightText | InactiveBorder | InactiveCaption | InactiveCaptionText | InfoBackground | InfoText | Menu | MenuText | Scrollbar | ThreeDDarkShadow | ThreeDFace | ThreeDHighlight | ThreeDLightShadow | ThreeDShadow | Window | WindowFrame | WindowText
where 
<rgb-component> = <integer> | <percentage>
<alpha-value> = <number>
<hue> = <number>

Live examples

• box-shadow test
• box-shadow tutorial and examples

box-shadow: 60px -16px teal;

box-shadow: 10px 5px 5px black;

box-shadow: 3px 3px red, -1em 0 0.4em olive;

box-shadow: inset 5em 1em gold;

box-shadow: 0 0 1em gold;

box-shadow: inset 0 0 1em gold;

box-shadow: inset 0 0 1em gold, 0 0 1em red;

Specifications

Browser compatibility

[1] Shadows affect layout in older Gecko, Presto, and WebKit; e.g. if you cast an outer shadow to a box with a width of 100%, you'll see a scrollbar.

[2] Since version 5.5, Internet Explorer supports Microsoft's DropShadow and Shadow Filter. You can use this proprietary extension to cast a drop shadow (though the syntax and the effect are different from CSS3). In order to get box-shadow in IE9 or later, you need to set border-collapse to separate.

[3] Gecko 13 (Firefox 13 / Thunderbird 13 / SeaMonkey 2.10) removed support for -moz-box-shadow. Since then, only the unprefixed version is supported. Shadows affect layout in older Gecko, Presto, and WebKit; e.g. if you cast an outer shadow to a box with a width of 100%, you'll see a scrollbar.

In addition to the unprefixed support, Gecko 44.0 (Firefox 44.0 / Thunderbird 44.0 / SeaMonkey 2.41) added support for a -webkit prefixed version of the property for web compatibility reasons behind the preference layout.css.prefixes.webkit, defaulting to false. Since Gecko 49.0 (Firefox 49.0 / Thunderbird 49.0 / SeaMonkey 2.46) the preference defaults to true.

[4] Box-shadow, one of CSS3’s best new features