Add a Drop Shadow to an Image

A drop shadow adds depth

A drop shadow is the simplest way to make an image feel like it's floating above the page instead of pasted flat onto it. It's a staple of clean product shots, app screenshots, presentation slides, and marketing graphics — that subtle soft shadow reads as polished and professional.

Getting a shadow right by hand is fiddly, because the shadow needs room to spread or it gets cut off at the edge. This tool handles that for you: it automatically pads the canvas around the image to fit the shadow, so nothing is ever clipped. Tune the blur and the vertical offset, set the background colour behind it, and you're done.

How to add a drop shadow to an image

1. Open your image. Drag it onto the tool, choose a file, or paste it.
2. Turn on the shadow. The page opens with the drop shadow on. Adjust the blur for softness and the offset for how far it sits below the image.
3. Set a background and download. Choose the background colour behind the shadow, then click Download. The canvas is already padded to fit.

Keep shadows subtle

A natural shadow is soft and not too dark. Use a generous blur with a small offset for a gentle lift, and keep the shadow colour a muted dark grey rather than pure black. Big, hard shadows look artificial.