Creating drop shadows

Drop shadows simulate light falling on an object from one of five particular perspectives: flat, right, left, bottom, and top. You can add drop shadows to most objects or groups of objects, including artistic text, paragraph text, and bitmaps.

Drop shadows created in CorelDRAW are ideal for printed outputs, but are not appropriate for output to devices, such as vinyl cutters and plotters. Cuttable shadows are needed for such projects. To add a cuttable shadow to an object, you need to duplicate the object, fill the duplicate with a dark color, and then place it behind the original object. For information about duplicating objects, see “To duplicate an object.”

When you add a drop shadow, you can change its perspective, and you can adjust attributes such as color, opacity, fade level, angle, and feathering.

CorelDRAW 3d dropshadow Creating drop shadows

A drop shadow applied to an object

CorelDRAW 3d dropshadow feather Creating drop shadows

The feathered effect softens the edges of a drop shadow.

After you create a drop shadow, you can copy it or clone it to a selected object. When you copy a drop shadow, the original and copy have no connection and can be edited independently. With cloning, the master object’s drop shadow attributes are automatically applied to its clone.

By separating a drop shadow from its object, you gain more control over the drop shadow itself. For example, you can edit the drop shadow as you would edit a transparency. For information about editing a transparency, see “Applying transparencies.”

As with transparencies, you can apply a merge mode to a drop shadow to control how the color of the drop shadow blends with the color of the object underneath. For more information about merge modes, see “Applying merge modes.”

You can also adjust the rendering resolution of a drop shadow. For example, you can increase the rendering resolution to improve a drop shadow’s appearance. However, increasing the resolution of a drop shadow may increase the file size of a drawing.

You can remove a drop shadow.


To add a drop shadow

CorelDRAW btnbacktotop Creating drop shadows
1.
 
In the toolbox, click the Drop shadow tool CorelDRAW pgx dropshadow tool Creating drop shadows .
2.
 
Click an object.
3.
 
Drag from the center or side of the object until the drop shadow is the size you want.
4.
 
Specify any attributes on the property bar.

CorelDRAW note Creating drop shadows

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Drop shadows cannot be added to linked groups, such as blended objects, contoured objects, beveled objects, extruded objects, objects created with the Artistic media tool CorelDRAW pgx artisticmedia tool Creating drop shadows, or other drop shadows.

To add a cuttable shadow

CorelDRAW btnbacktotop Creating drop shadows
1.
 
Select an object.
2.
 
Click Edit CorelDRAW onestep Creating drop shadows Duplicate.
3.
 
Click a dark color on the onscreen color palette.
4.
 
Click Arrange CorelDRAW onestep Creating drop shadows Order CorelDRAW onestep Creating drop shadows Behind, and click the original to position the duplicate behind it.
5.
 
Adjust the position of the duplicate.

To copy or clone a drop shadow

CorelDRAW btnbacktotop Creating drop shadows
1.
 
Select the object to which you want to copy or clone a drop shadow.
2.
 
Click Effects and click one of the following:
•
Copy effect CorelDRAW onestep Creating drop shadows Drop shadow from
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Clone effect CorelDRAW onestep Creating drop shadows Drop shadow from
3.
 
Click the drop shadow of an object.

CorelDRAW tip Creating drop shadows

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You can also use the Eyedropper tool CorelDRAW pgx eyedropper tool Creating drop shadows to copy a drop shadow. For more information, see “To copy effects from one object to another.”

To separate a drop shadow from an object

CorelDRAW btnbacktotop Creating drop shadows
1.
 
Select an object’s drop shadow.
2.
 
Click Arrange CorelDRAW onestep Creating drop shadows Break drop shadow group apart.
3.
 
Drag the shadow.

To apply a merge mode to a drop shadow

CorelDRAW btnbacktotop Creating drop shadows
1.
 
In the toolbox, click the Drop shadow tool CorelDRAW pgx dropshadow tool Creating drop shadows .
2.
 
Select an object with a drop shadow, and choose a merge mode from the Transparency operation list box on the property bar.

CorelDRAW note Creating drop shadows

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The default merge mode Multiply produces natural-looking drop shadows.

To adjust the resolution of a drop shadow

CorelDRAW btnbacktotop Creating drop shadows
1.
 
Click Tools CorelDRAW onestep Creating drop shadows Options.
2.
 
In the Workspace list of categories, click General.
3.
 
Type a value in the Resolution box.

To remove a drop shadow

CorelDRAW btnbacktotop Creating drop shadows
1.
 
Select an object’s drop shadow.
2.
 
Click Effects CorelDRAW onestep Creating drop shadows Clear drop shadow.

CorelDRAW tip Creating drop shadows

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You can also remove a drop shadow from an object by clicking the Clear drop shadow button CorelDRAW pgx clear effect but Creating drop shadows on the property bar.

Creating drop shadows