CSS Shadow Generator: elevation, layering and realism

Build a visual utility for interface shadows with precise control over offset, blur, spread, opacity and layered depth.

📘 Theory

The goal is reliable CSS output, not just slider movement.

Separate controls from preview so you can tweak values quickly while still reading the final result like production code.

Use CSS variables for exported shadows so you can apply the same elevation scale across different components without duplicating declarations.

The generator should expose a clean, copyable output. If exporting the result is awkward, the tool will not survive inside a real workflow.

Minimum controls: x offset, y offset, blur, spread, color and opacity.
One valuable advanced option: `inset`.
Practical rule: keep base shadows soft and reserve deeper shadows for hover, focus or modal states.

Modern interfaces often rely on two or three shadows working together instead of a single harsh blur.

Example Demo: visual `box-shadow` generator Adjust the key values, preview the result and copy the final CSS.

⌄

Challenge Challenge: build an elevation scale Create two shadow tokens and apply them to the base and hover states.

⌄

Test

Check your knowledge with a test about CSS.

Course resources 78