Top 10 Tailwind Shadow Generators to Instantly Improve Your UI
Ever spent way too long fiddling with box-shadow values, trying to nail that perfect, modern UI look? You tweak the offset, blur, and spread, refresh, and it’s still not quite right. It’s either too harsh, too blurry, or just looks… dated. Manually crafting those subtle, layered shadows that make an interface feel premium can be a tedious process.
That’s where a good Tailwind shadow generator becomes an indispensable part of your toolkit. These visual editors take the guesswork out of creating beautiful, complex shadows, letting you see the results in real-time and spitting out the exact Tailwind utility class or config code you need.
We’ve tested and curated a list of the best generators out there to help you find the perfect one for your workflow. This isn’t just a random list; we’ve chosen these tools based on their features, ease of use, and ability to produce modern, professional results. Forget tweaking in the dark—let’s find the tool that will elevate your next project.
See also
The Ultimate List of Tailwind CSS Shadow Generators
Here are the top tools that will streamline your shadow design process, from simple one-click presets to complex, multi-layered masterpieces.
Tailwind Box Shadow Generator
This tool is a fantastic all-rounder and my personal starting point for many projects. What sets it apart is its intuitive multi-layer support. You can stack several shadow layers, each with its own offset, blur, spread, and color, which is the secret to creating incredibly soft and realistic depth. It’s perfect for mimicking the subtle shadows you see in high-end dashboards and component libraries.
The interface is clean, providing instant visual feedback on a sample card. I recently used this on a fintech dashboard to create card shadows that were subtle but still made the components pop. It handles both Tailwind JIT classes and vanilla CSS, making it versatile.
Mini Tip: Start with two or three layers. Make the first one a tight, slightly darker shadow, and the subsequent layers progressively lighter, more blurred, and with a larger spread to create a smooth, diffused effect.
Tailtools Shadow Generator
If you love a sleek, minimalist dark mode interface, you’ll feel right at home with Tailtools. This generator is incredibly straightforward but powerful. It focuses on getting the job done quickly with simple sliders for properties like offset, blur, and spread. The preview element is a realistic-looking component (a tweet card), which gives you a much better feel for how the shadow will look in a real-world application.
One of its best features is the “Export code” function, which neatly packages the shadow value for you to drop directly into your tailwind.config.js file. It’s a small detail, but it streamlines the workflow.
Mini Tip: This tool is excellent for creating single, well-defined shadows. Use it when you need a crisp, clean shadow for buttons or focused UI elements without the complexity of multiple layers.
Gradienty
On the opposite end of the spectrum from subtle grays, we have Gradienty. While it’s a full-suite gradient generator, its box shadow tool is a hidden gem for creating vibrant, colorful shadows. This is a huge trend in modern web design, adding a splash of brand personality to elements. Instead of a plain black shadow, you can have a soft blue, a vibrant pink, or even a multi-color gradient glow.
While it’s not a layered tailwind shades generator, it excels at creating that unique, stylized look. Consider this for projects that need to stand out—think SaaS landing pages, marketing sites, or personal portfolios.
Mini Tip: Match the shadow color to your brand’s primary or secondary color, but lower the opacity significantly (around 10-20%). This creates a beautiful, subtle glow effect that feels custom and intentional.
CSSCraftr Shadow Generator
CSSCraftr feels like it was built by designers. The interface is colorful and just plain fun to use. It offers a ton of control, including sliders for offset, spread, blur, and opacity, all with a great real-time preview. A standout feature is the “Inset” toggle, allowing you to easily create inner shadows for form inputs or depressed-state components.
It provides both a simple text shadow and a box shadow generator, and while it exports vanilla CSS, the values are easy to translate into your Tailwind config.
Mini Tip: Use the “Inset” feature to give form fields or clickable divs a subtle “pressed-in” look on their :active state. It’s a small touch that dramatically improves user experience.
Tailwind Template Shadow Generator
This generator has a unique horizontal layout that feels spacious and easy to use. The large preview area gives you an excellent idea of how your shadow will look at scale. It offers all the standard controls and is another solid, reliable choice for everyday shadow generation. It’s simple, effective, and a great tool for beginners who might be overwhelmed by more complex interfaces.
Mini Tip: Pay attention to the blur and spread radius. For a soft, modern shadow, you generally want a blur radius that is at least twice the size of your spread radius.
Folge Tailwind CSS Shadow Generator
Folge’s generator is part of a larger suite of free tools, and it carries the same no-fluff, practical DNA. The UI is extremely clean, presenting the controls and the output in a clear, easy-to-read-format. It spits out the exact Tailwind CSS class with the arbitrary value, ready for you to copy and paste. It’s a fantastic tool for quick, on-the-fly shadow creation.
Mini Tip: Use this tool when you need to apply a one-off custom shadow directly in your HTML. The copy-paste format shadow-[0px_4px_6px_rgba(0,0,0,0.1)] is perfect for that.
Tailwind CSS Box Shadows (Educational)
This last one isn’t a generator, but an essential educational resource and gallery. It showcases dozens of beautifully crafted box shadow examples, from small and subtle to large and complex. Each example comes with the code ready to copy. It’s the perfect place to go for inspiration when you’re not sure what kind of shadow you want to create. Think of it as a style guide for your shadows.
Mini Tip: Browse this site before starting a new project to get ideas. Find a style you like, then use one of the generators above to tweak it to perfectly match your design’s aesthetic.
Tailkits Tailwind CSS Box Shadow Generator
Advanced Tailwind CSS Shadow Generator
NotchTools Tailwind CSS Box Shadow Generator
How to Choose the Right Shadow Generator: A Quick Guide
Feeling overwhelmed by the options? Here’s a quick cheat sheet:
- For complex, layered, and soft shadows: Use the Box Shadow Generator for TailwindCSS (#1). Its multi-layer support is unmatched.
- For a quick, clean, and minimalist workflow: Go with Tailtools (#2). Its dark mode UI and focused feature set are perfect for pros.
- For vibrant, colored, or gradient shadows: Gradienty (#3) is your best bet for adding a splash of brand color.
- When you need a great inner (inset) shadow: Use the specialized HTMLCSS Freebies tool (#7).
Conclusion
The right shadow can make the difference between a flat, lifeless design and a dynamic, engaging user interface. But you don’t have to waste time tweaking CSS values by hand. The Tailwind shadow generator tools on this list are designed to speed up your workflow, inspire creativity, and help you produce professional-grade results every time.
Bookmark two or three that fit your style, and you’ll never look at box-shadow the same way again.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. How do I add these custom shadows to my tailwind.config.js file?
Most of these generators provide the raw CSS value (e.g., 0px 10px 30px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1)). You can add this to your theme by extending the boxShadow key in your tailwind.config.js file, like this:
// tailwind.config.js
module.exports = {
theme: {
extend: {
boxShadow: {
'soft-lg': '0px 10px 30px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1)',
'glow': '0px 0px 20px rgba(78, 115, 223, 0.3)',
}
}
}
}
You can then use it in your HTML with class="shadow-soft-lg".
2. Can I create layered shadows with these tools?
Yes! The Box Shadow Generator for TailwindCSS (#1) is the best tool for this. It has a dedicated UI for adding and managing multiple shadow layers to create rich, deep shadow effects.
3. What’s the difference between a box shadow and a drop shadow in Tailwind?
Tailwind, shadow-{size} applies the box-shadow property, which is a shadow around the entire element’s box model. drop-shadow-{size} applies the CSS filter: drop-shadow(…) property. The key difference is that drop-shadow will apply to the actual shape of the content inside a transparent element (like a PNG or SVG), whereas box-shadow applies to the rectangular container.
4. Are these Tailwind shadow generators free to use?
Yes, all the tools and resources listed in this article are completely free to use.
