This InDesign tip on creating cast shadows was sent to Tip of the Week email subscribers on July 5, 2018.
Sign up now and every week you’ll get a new tip, keyboard shortcut, and roundups of new articles, plus exclusive deals sent right to your Inbox!
Just scroll down to the bottom of this page, enter your email address, and click Go! We’ll take care of the rest. Now, on with the tip!
Here’s a method of making simple cast shadows for native InDesign objects.
Copy and paste the object in place. Set the fill (and stroke, if any) to Paper. Set the blending mode to Multiply. This makes the object fully transparent. Now add a drop shadow, and in the Effects dialog box, set the distance to zero (so the shadow is in the exact same location as the object). Select the option Shadow Honors Other Effects, and deselect the option Object Knocks Out Shadow.
Now you can see the shadow of the copied object but not the object itself. Use the Control panel to scale and skew the shadow as desired to make a cast effect. Finally, press Shift+G to get the Gradient Feather tool, and drag over the shadow so it fades out as it gets farther away from the original object.
This article was last modified on July 25, 2019
This article was first published on July 10, 2018
Commenting is easier and faster when you're logged in!
Recommended for you
Tip of the Week: Setting How to See and Edit Overset Text
This tip was sent to Tip of the Week email subscribers on May 21, 2015. Sign up...
Top 20 Command/Control Clicks
Mike's favorite tricks using the Command key on the Mac or the Control key on Wi...
Tip of the Week: Adding a Shortcut to Create Hyperlinks
How to speed up the process of creating hyperlinks in InDesign by adding a custo...