How to add a shadow to text in Illustrator
Use Effect › Stylize › Drop Shadow for a soft shadow, or add a second fill offset with the Transform effect for a hard vector shadow. JuicyType's Shadow effect does either, with a feather that stays vector.
The manual way, in Illustrator
- Select the text. Go to Effect › Stylize › Drop Shadow.
- Set X and Y offset, Blur and Opacity. Tick Preview.
- For a hard vector shadow instead: add a fill in the Appearance panel, drag it below the main fill, and apply Effect › Distort & Transform › Transform with a small move.
Drop Shadow is a raster effect, which prints fine at the right resolution: set Effect › Document Raster Effects Settings (300 ppi is the usual print starting point) and inspect the export at final size. A live effect re-renders when you scale it in Illustrator; an already expanded or exported bitmap enlarged later does not.
Menu paths checked against Adobe's current Illustrator documentation; hands-on verification and screenshots are still to come.
Shadow with JuicyType
Select the text, open the JuicyType panel, choose Shadow, and drag. It is a live effect, so the text stays editable and every control can be changed later.
- ColourTC1 / TC2 / Black / White / spot; default Black
- Offset0–100%, default 8
- Angle0–359°, default 135
- Spread0–100%
- Feather0–100%
- Opacity0–100%
Common questions
Why does my shadow look blurry when I zoom in?
It is a raster effect drawn at the document raster resolution. Raise that in Effect › Document Raster Effects Settings, or use the Transform-fill method or JuicyType's vector feather.