CSS Text Outline Generator
Create text outline and stroke effects with CSS. Generate outlined headings, hollow text, and bordered lettering using text-shadow or -webkit-text-stroke — all client-side.
CSS Text Shadow Generator
Design beautiful CSS text shadows visually. Add multiple layers, adjust offsets, blur, and color, then copy the CSS.
The quick brown fox
Shadow Layers (1)
CSS Output
text-shadow: 2px 2px 4px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
Presets
About CSS Text Shadows
The text-shadow property adds shadow effects to text. The syntax is: x-offset y-offset blur-radius color.
Offsets (X/Y) control the shadow's position. Positive X moves right, positive Y moves down.
Blur softens the shadow edges. A value of 0 creates a sharp, hard-edged shadow. Higher values produce a softer, more diffused effect.
No spread or inset — unlike box-shadow, text-shadow does not support spread or inset values.
Multiple shadows can be stacked by comma-separating values. Use this to create neon glows, 3D effects, outlines, and other creative typography effects.
Outline trick — apply four shadows at 1px offsets in each direction (up, down, left, right) to simulate a text stroke without using -webkit-text-stroke.
What is a CSS text outline?
A CSS text outline adds a visible border or stroke around text characters. There are two main approaches: the text-shadow method uses multiple offset shadows (at 1px in each direction) to simulate a stroke that works in all browsers, while the -webkit-text-stroke property provides a true stroke effect with better quality but requires a WebKit/Blink engine. Both techniques can create outlined, hollow, and bordered text effects popular in modern design.
Common use cases
Text outlines are used for hero headings over images or videos where the outline ensures legibility, hollow/outlined display typography for modern design aesthetics, sports and entertainment branding, retro and poster-style web designs, and creating visual hierarchy by differentiating outlined headings from filled body text. Outlined text also pairs well with variable font weight for dynamic visual effects.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between text-shadow outlines and -webkit-text-stroke?
-webkit-text-stroke draws a true stroke around characters with precise width control but is WebKit/Blink only (Chrome, Safari, Edge). The text-shadow method fakes an outline using 4-8 offset shadows and works in all browsers, but can look rough at large sizes.
How do I create hollow/outlined text in CSS?
Set the text color to transparent and apply -webkit-text-stroke: 2px black (or your desired color and width). For cross-browser support, combine this with a text-shadow fallback: 'color: transparent; -webkit-text-stroke: 2px black;'.