Submitted by and © 2004 Kristi McFadden
DOWNLOAD PRINTABLE VERSION HERE (pdf)
In this tutorial we are going to explore the shadow function. In traditional scrapbooking shadows are natural but in digital scrapbooking we have to create them to give the illusion that items are off of the page.
1. Open a new document. File>New>Select your size. I'm using 4x6, 300dpi
2. Insert a shape. Insert>Shape>Square. Remove the black line around the shape.
For this tutorial I'm going to give the background some color so you can see what is being done.
3. To give objects shadow you will use the Effects menu. Select the desired object and then click Effects>Shadow. When you have selected “shadow” another menu will pop up on the left side of your screen. For the first practice just select “Soft”
I'm going to go through all the shadows so you can see how they first appear during selection.
You can adjust the size of the shadow by clicking on the yellow dots or you can rotate it. If you want to change the color of the shadow you will have to click on “Customize the Shadow”
Clicking this will bring up another menu.
In this menu you can change the color of your shadow, the transparency of the shadow, and the softness of the edges. These selections can really help your shadows add accents to you pages. Lets practice a little with these.
1. We will use the square first. Select the square and then add a Drop, Down Right shadow. Now lets move the shadow so that it is very close to the bottom and right sides of the square.
Before: 
After: 
2. Click on Customize the Shadow.
3. Drag the marker for transparency up and down the bar. Here are a few examples of different transparencies:
25% 
50% 
75% 
The darker a shadow the “closer” to the paper the object appears.
4. Edge softness causes the edges of the shadow to bleed a little, appearing blurred and softer. In this example the first box is 60% transparent with no edge softness. The second one is 60% transparent with 40% softness and the third is 60% with 80% softness.
0% 
40% 
80% 
Lets try using some color changes. For this experiment we can use some text!
1. Insert the words, “Shadow Fun” onto your canvas. I'm going to use Market at size 36 for this example.
2. Click on the text and go to your shadow feature. I'm going to use Drop, Down Right again for simplicity.
3. Now click on “Customize the Shadow” We are going to focus our attention on the color selections for now.
Since I have a yellow background I'm going to select a white shadow. When you first click on the white you won't be able to see it well. So you can drag the transparency down some so that it shows through. (I set mine to 50)
Just like the shadow with the square you can move the shadow around until you have it situated in a spot that you like. I'm going to move mine so that it is hugging the letters a little better.
Now lets play with the colors and location of the shadow. Try it with a green shadow, a blue shadow or even a hot pink shadow… whatever fits your fancy! Move the location of the shadow around, try out various places for the shadow to fall. Each one gives a different effect
Now go back to the edge softness and play around with different settings for the shadow.
Here I used the hot pink with an edge softness of 60% You can see how it varies from the same selection above.
Another way to use shadows is to pull them farther from the word. Here is an example using the font “Vivaldi” at size 36.
First I have no shadow.
Next I'm going to add the shadow but I'm going to move it further down and right.
Now I'm going to change the color of the shadow so that it matches that of the text.
Lastly I'm going to soften the edges some and change the transparency to about 55%
To give some character to a page I will sometimes rotate the shadow or even move it so that none of the text overlaps the shadow. Here are a few examples:
Another thing I like to do is shrink or elongate the shadow to give it a varied look from the main text. Here are two examples:
Whatever you do, just remember that you can always go back and change it if you don't like it! Just go crazy and experiment!!
You may find that I will refer to this tutorial when I use shadows in future tutorials.
Have fun!
© Copyright 2003-2005 by Scrapbook-Bytes; & original creator/s of tutorials/articles
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