Improved Drop shadow

Published by Vlasta on October 21st 2006.

A drop shadow filter is a crucial part of every web or application graphics editor. If you need more convincing that drop shadow is your friend, read the article about the role of shadows in icon design. The good news is that the old JScript-based filter will be replaced by a new one. A better one. A faster one.

What’s new

First of all, the C++-based drop shadow is available as a standalone filter, not just as a part of the image-to-icon conversion. And it has following settings:

• Shadow size in range 1-50 pixels.
• Shadow offset - any number of pixels (separate setting for vertical and horizontal offset).
• Sharpness - controls how to distribute the shadow of each pixel.
• Shadow color - now you can create a glow effects by using a bright color instead of a dark one.
• A unique edge only shadow mode - notice on the picture that the large transparent areas remained transparent, only the edges are darker.
• Ability to automatically adjust the size of the modified picture - best used together with a Remove Empty Border function - this way you images will always have the smallest size required.

And of course the drop shadow can be used with the new configuration dialog with preview.

Summary

You’ll see this improved drop shadow effect in next versions of RW Icon Editor and RW Cursor Editor.

Don’t you just love it when things fall into place? Is there anything that should be added to this operation configuration? Let me know!

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