SVG drop shadow using css3

bsr picture bsr · May 22, 2011 · Viewed 421.4k times · Source

Is it possible to set drop shadow for an svg element using css3 , something like

box-shadow: -5px -5px 5px #888;
-webkit-box-shadow: -5px -5px 5px #888;

I saw some remarks on creating shadow using filter effects. Is there an example of using css alone. Below is a working code where the cusor style is correctly applied, but no shadow effect. Please help me to get the shadow effect with least bit of code.

Answer

hitautodestruct picture hitautodestruct · Nov 29, 2012

Use the new CSS filter property.

Supported by webkit browsers, Firefox 34+ and Edge.

You can use this polyfill that will support FF < 34, IE6+.

You would use it like so:

/* Use -webkit- only if supporting: Chrome < 54, iOS < 9.3, Android < 4.4.4 */

.shadow {
  -webkit-filter: drop-shadow( 3px 3px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, .7));
  filter: drop-shadow( 3px 3px 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, .7));
  /* Similar syntax to box-shadow */
}
<img src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Star_wars2.svg" alt="" class="shadow" width="200">

<!-- Or -->

<svg class="shadow" ...>
    <rect x="10" y="10" width="200" height="100" fill="#bada55" />
</svg>

This approach differs from the box-shadow effect in that it accounts for opacity and does not apply the drop shadow effect to the box but rather to the corners of the svg element itself.

Please Note: This approach only works when the class is placed on the <svg> element alone. You can NOT use this on an inline svg element such as <rect>.

<!-- This will NOT work! -->
<svg><rect class="shadow" ... /></svg>

Read more about css filters on html5rocks.