How to remove Drop Shadow in Illustrator

Pictures and illustrations are a great way to make your webpage interactive. What makes it even better is when you are able to turn a 2-D image into a 3-D object. Sometimes it can be as easy as adding a drop shadow to your illustration or text. With Adobe Illustrator, adding or deleting a drop shadow is very easy. Artists experiment with various intricate and creative ways to create the shadow effect. However, we will be providing the easiest and quickest way to add a drop shadow to your artwork. Then we will show you how to remove drop shadow in Illustrator.

How to create drop shadow:

First, we will try to create a drop shadow from the default function in Illustrator. Start with selecting a profile of your artwork. The profile might be a text or a section of the illustration. Then go to the Effect menu, find the Styles submenu and select the Drop Shadow option. A new window with the name “Drop Shadow” pops up on your illustrator workspace. Now the following options namely: Mode, Opacity, X Offset, Y Offset, Blur, Color/Darkness appear. You can start by selecting Mode as Multiply(which is also the default mode). This will ensure that the shadow blends with the background. You can similarly adjust Opacity, X Offset, Y Offset and Blur settings to suit your requirement. The Drop Shadow window also provides an option to add colour to the shadow. Alternatively, you can select a suitable darkness level for the drop shadow in the Drop Shadow window. Hit the preview check box to check the appearance of your drop shadow. Hit OK when you are satisfied with the rendering

You can easily navigate to the Drop Shadow option on the Properties Panel as well, which is usually placed on the workspace. On the properties panel, search for Appearance, double click Effects and Drop Shadow window appears. You can modify the Drop Shadow preferences and choose to hide on unhide it in the Appearance panel.

Alternative approach using tracing method

While creating drop shadow using Illustrator default option is useful for texts, a different approach may also be taken in the case of illustrations and images. First of all, you need to select the object or profile for which the shadow is required. Then you need to trace the profile. For this, select the pen tool and trace along with the corners of your profile. Keep smart guides on so that the tracing becomes easy. When the trace is complete, Illustrator creates a shape with a dark grey fill. Move the traced shape to a place where it is easily visible. Then go to the Effect menu, go to Stylize and Choose the Feather option. Choose a feather radius, so that the edges of the traced shape appear soft enough to blend into the background. Here’s a tip, always make use of the preview option to visualise the changes you made. Sometimes if the changes don’t reflect, uncheck and check the preview check box. Then change the blending mode from normal to multiply. Blend mode should appear on the top of the workspace. There you also find the opacity settings. Reduce it from 100% to something around 25% to 35%. You can experiment with other values of opacity as well. Now the trace should begin to look like a shadow. Place this shape underneath the illustration to get the shadow effect.  Since the traced shape can be easily moved by dragging it around, you save the effort of calibrating the X and Y offset values.  

How to remove drop shadow in Illustrator:

Now that we have created a drop shadow, let us learn how to remove a drop shadow in Illustrator. The first step is to locate the layer where the drop shadow has been added. Select the object and check the Layers panel on the Properties panel. You may need to search the layer containing the shadow and select it. Then go to the Appearance panel and you should be able to see the drop shadow property. Alternatively, you can go to the Windows menu, then go to Appearance. Select the drop shadow from the Appearance panel. A simple option would be to turn off the visibility to remove the drop shadow. However, to completely delete the shadow, click on the drop shadow icon, and then select or drag it to the bin icon at the bottom of the Appearance panel.

Quick recap

Let us now quickly summarise how to create and delete Drop Shadow in Illustrator.

How to create drop shadow:

Select the profile -> go to Effect menu -> go to style -> select Drop Shadow -> adjust drop shadow properties(like opacity, X and Y offset) -> preview the effect -> hit OK

How to remove drop shadow:

Select the object -> select the appropriate layer in the Layer panel -> go to Appearance panel -> select the drop shadow -> delete or hide it

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