Tight Shadows Tight shadowing is the easiest to later make into a transparent GIF or to overlay on top of some other image. The shadows are opaque and in a single hue. This is the best shadow to use for smaller items, such as a signature file, or for any item that may be used on many different colored backgrounds. Also, this type allows you to be creative without adding a bucketload of bytes to an image.

Step 1: Prepare your text on a contrasting background color. It doesn't matter what color you use for the background, just as long as it is dissimilar to the color you plan to use for the text. Step 2: Make a copy of this and change the text color to a darker shade (close to black) of the same hue.

Step 3: Letting the background go transparent, paste the colored text over the darker version. Allow one or two rows of pixels of the darker version to remain visible at the bottom and on the righthand edges of the letters. (Zoom in closer to get a precise alignment.) You're finished! It will be no trouble at all to crop this item down and make the background color transparent if you want. You may also, depending on the image, be able to reduce the palette to as few as three colors which will drop the byte count significantly for the final file. This image was created in Windows Paintbrush following this "by hand" technique for tight shadows. This image was created in Paint Shop Pro, using the special drop shadow feature with opacity at 255 and blur set to 0.

More Shape Take this same text and give it even more shape. Start with the two versions as above, one the color you want the text to be, the other a much darker version of the same hue. Make a second copy of the text in the color you want and set it aside. Make another copy of the text and alter the color to be a much lighter shade (almost white) of the same hue. This becomes your highlight version. (Just in case that wasn't clear, you should have four copies total: two in the text color, one in the shadow color, and one in the highlight color.) Follow Step 3 above. Letting the background go transparent, paste the highlight version over the item you completed in the step above. Offset the highlight by one or two rows of pixels to the top and lefthand edges of the lettering. Now take the second copy of the color version and paste it over the top of the others, letting the background go transparent. Align it with the color version that was already there (but was mostly covered by the highlight layer).

Done again! Now you have both shadow and highlight, which grants even more of a shaped appearance to your text. This image was created in Windows Paintbrush following this "by hand" technique for highlight shaping. This image was created in Paint Shop Pro, using the special drop shadow feature with opacity at 255 and blur set to 0. I then switched to the Cutout feature for the highlight with opacity at 255 and blur set to 0.

Drop Shadows If you thought you needed a special program or filter to reproduce one of the web's most popular effects, get ready to be surprised.

Step 1: Prepare two copies of your text, one in the color you want the text to be and the other in a much darker (near-black) shade of the background hue. Your background color is important when using drop shadowing, because the shadow will blend with and should appear to be part of the background itself.

Step 2: Blur the darker version as much as it takes to reach a very softened effect similar to the one shown here.

Step 3: Letting the background color go transparent, paste your colored text over the blurred shadow, offsetting it towards your imagined light-source (upper-left is used here). That's all there is to it! A perfect drop-shadow without any special filters!

Use More Shape It looked so good with tight shadowing, why not try adding a shaping highlight to this drop shadow? Follow all the same steps given above except remember to make your shadow version a darker tone of the background hue and to blur it until it softens. This image was created in Windows Paintbrush following this "by hand" technique for drop shadows with highlighting. This image was created in Paint Shop Pro, using the special drop shadow feature with opacity at 180 and blur set to 23. I then switched to the Cutout feature for the highlight with opacity at 255 and blur set to 0.

Selecting Colors Once you have your main color chosen, it's easy to pick out your highlight and shadow tones. Typically, the standard Windows color picker comes up, and if it does this in your paint program, you've got it made. If this isn't how your program works, you'll need to find another method, but this tip is still helpful to know. Colors are based on several different elements, most notably hue, value and saturation. I won't go into their definitions here, but when I mention choosing a highlight or shadow of "a different shade of the same hue," I'm speaking of changing only the value (depth) of the color, not the color itself. Don't shift the position of the star-pointer on the main color chart or you will be changing the hue and/or saturation. You can't go wrong if you use the vertical color bar on the far right of the Windows color picker (shown here). Your chosen text color is your mid-tone (regardless of where it falls vertically on the bar). The highlight can be selected from any level above that (toward white) and the shadow can be chosen from any level below it (toward black). Avoid picking an extreme white or black tone; get close but not too close. The colors look more natural when extreme black and white are not included.