Tip of the Week: Better Drop Shadows

How to improve the appearance of drop shadows in InDesign by adding noise.

This InDesign tip on making better drop shadows was sent to Tip of the Week email subscribers on August 2, 2018.

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Want better-looking drop shadows? Normal drop shadows are cool, but they’re too pure, especially when printed. You’ll get a much more natural drop shadow if you increase the Noise value in the Drop Shadow dialog box a little—you only need 5 or 6 percent to help. That adds a little randomness to the pixels as the shadow fades.

InDesign drop shadow with noise

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This article was last modified on July 7, 2021

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