83 CSS box-shadow Examples

This Hand-Drawn Retro Radio Group injects personality into standard forms with a nostalgic, sketchbook aesthetic. It combines a “neo-brutalist” shadow style with subtle animations - like text jitter and a bouncing selection dot - to mimic the imperfection of hand-drawn art. The background features a CSS-generated paper texture and scanline effect, making it ideal for indie game interfaces, creative blogs, or retro-themed landing pages.

This Animated Futuristic State Button is more than just a clickable element; it’s a self-contained micro-interaction. Designed for actions like “Generate” or “Processing,” it features a idle flicker animation that transitions into an intense, glowing state upon focus. The text cleverly swaps from a call-to-action to a continuous verb (“Generate” → “Generating”) using purely CSS animations, providing immediate visual feedback without JavaScript.

This collection of Skeuomorphic Wood Texture Toggles brings a tactile, nostalgic feel to digital interfaces. It showcases four distinct variations of toggle switches (sliding, dotted handle, separated track, and embedded text), all unified by a realistic wood grain texture and intricate lighting effects. The implementation demonstrates the power of modern CSS features like :has() to control complex state changes without a single line of JavaScript.

This Neumorphic Dark Mode Calculator brings the “Soft UI” trend to life with a fully functional mathematical tool. It features a realistic, extruded plastic look achieved through complex CSS box-shadows. A prominent toggle allows users to switch between a clean light theme and a high-contrast dark mode, instantly updating the shadow physics to maintain the illusion of depth.

A pure CSS bicycle illustration constructed from geometric primitives using absolute positioning and vmin units for responsiveness. conic-gradient simulates wheel spokes, transform: skewX shapes the frame, and inset box-shadow adds depth, while pseudo-elements efficiently duplicate components like wheels.

A pure CSS character illustration of Dipper Pines, constructed from geometric primitives using absolute positioning and vmin units for responsiveness. The design leverages border-radius, transform, clip-path masking, and pseudo-elements to shape detailed features like the signature pine tree hat and hair, all styled with CSS variables and a custom web font.

A pure CSS cartoon illustration of a giraffe constructed from geometric primitives using absolute positioning. It leverages box-shadow for efficient pattern repetition (spots, clouds), clip-path for complex shapes like the mane, and CSS variables for a consistent pastel color palette.

A pure CSS illustration of a house constructed from geometric primitives using clip-path for complex shapes and transform for perspective. It features a warm color palette managed via CSS variables, extensive drop-shadow usage for foliage density, and linear-gradient for detailed window reflections.

A pure CSS illustration of a knight constructed from geometric primitives. It employs repeating-linear-gradient for shield textures, clip-path for armor shaping, and extensive box-shadow duplication to render limbs and details efficiently, creating a stark, high-contrast monochrome aesthetic.

A tactile Neumorphic progress indicator where JavaScript drives the animation state by updating a custom property --progress. The visual logic relies on CSS conic-gradient utilizing calculated color stops to dynamically render the filling arc, while complex layered box-shadow creates a soft, extruded 3D aesthetic.

A collection of skeuomorphic buttons rendered entirely in CSS using complex gradient layering and calc()-driven geometry variables.

A stylized paper notepad To-Do list featuring a skew transformation and stack-effect shadows. Clicking checkboxes toggles a strikethrough style on handwritten list items via JavaScript class manipulation.

A full-stack, reactive implementation of Connect Four built on Vue.js, featuring complex game logic including victory checks across four axes and keyboard accessibility.

A hyper-realistic skeuomorphic toggle switch crafted entirely in CSS using advanced box-shadows and gradients to simulate depth and lighting.

A highly stylized range slider utilizing box-shadow on the slider thumb to render the track, masked by a clip-path polygon on the parent container to create a unique slanted aesthetic.

A tactile, interactive player that looks and behaves like a real gadget, featuring smooth power-on animations and live audio streaming.

A visually rich, animated section with cards that respond to hover (a colored border appears), creating a sense of interactivity and depth.

This is a toggle switch that allows selecting between skeuomorphic and neumorphic design styles. It also features a dark/light theme change triggered by toggling the switch itself.

A skeuomorphic toggle design achieved by combining multiple linear-gradients for the body and box-shadow to create a volumetric effect. The smooth switching animation and “glow” in the active state are implemented via transition with a custom cubic-bezier curve.

An advanced 3D toggle switch simulating a physical button with a neon glow. The effect is implemented in pure CSS using an <input type="checkbox">, and the state transition (ON/OFF) is achieved through a complex interplay of box-shadow and 3D transforms.

The use of gradients to create a realistic metallic effect and highlights on the button. Various types of linear-gradient and radial-gradient are applied to create a multi-layered background, and clip-path precisely clips the shapes of the pseudo-elements.

A demonstration of step-by-step CSS transformation to create a cross effect: on :checked, the middle bar either gets opacity: 0 or scales down, while the top and bottom bars simultaneously rotate and translate.

A purely CSS rendering of a complex lighthouse scene at sunset/night. The “checkbox hack” is used to toggle between day and night modes. All graphics - from the lighthouse itself to the sea, clouds, and stars - are created exclusively using CSS gradients and box-shadow.

An example of powerful reactivity with :has() - theme switching not only changes colors but also radically reworks the layout, adds stylized shadows, and even changes fonts and background SVG patterns.

A toggle switch implemented using a single <input type="checkbox"> and pseudo-elements. The “button” effect and its movement are achieved through complex, multi-layered box-shadow and the shifting of the ::before element.

A navigation menu with a neon glow and a complex hover effect. Icons and text use the CSS drop-shadow filter to create a glow effect, while the element’s color is controlled via an inline CSS variable --clr.

A demonstration of pixel art creation using only CSS gradients and box-shadow animation, without a single image file or extra HTML elements.

A skeuomorphic toggle button where the entire press effect is implemented in pure CSS using box-shadow and transform: scale(). JavaScript is only used to toggle the WAI-ARIA attribute aria-pressed on click.

A combination of the ‘checkbox hack’ and 3D transforms to create an interactive neumorphism-style switcher. JavaScript only adds classes, while the entire transform: rotateX() animation and complex box-shadow are controlled by CSS.

The “Accordion/FAQ” functionality is implemented using pure JavaScript, which handles the click on the parent element and toggles the active class on the FAQ container. The visual highlight is the icon change via CSS display: none/block properties.

An effective button group where the hover effect is created via inset box-shadow - and the click confirmation animation is implemented using transform and opacity on the ::after pseudo-element.

Pure CSS skeuomorphism in action - a complete replica of a MIDI controller where every knob, pad, and key is drawn by layering dozens of gradients and shadows.

This simple counter demonstrates clean vanilla JavaScript functionality: counter management, class switching for instant color scheme change based on the number’s sign. The stylistic focus is on “Soft UI” aesthetics.

This demo explores the Neumorphic or Soft UI design trend, implementing a complete set of custom radio buttons, checkboxes, and toggle switches using only pure CSS box-shadow properties to achieve the signature concave/convex 3D-like effect, while a concise Vanilla JS script manages the dynamic background gradient on state change.

Achieve a premium, vibrant glow and pulsating background with this component, which utilizes high-performance CSS animations and dynamic box-shadow effects, all orchestrated by TypeScript and the GSAP library.

A tactilely realistic vertical toggle, created using advanced CSS variable techniques and multiple box-shadow layers to mimic three-dimensional depth, combined with smooth cubic-bezier animations.

A complex 3D effect with a deep glow, achieved by combining multiple box-shadow and radial-gradient styles. Key feature: layered fingerprint scanning using two SVG elements and the clever application of mix-blend-mode.

This demo is a visual guide to creating double borders and frames using pure CSS. It showcases elegant and flexible approaches with box-shadow, outline, and CSS variables, making the code clean and easily customizable.

The demo focuses on using CSS gradients to generate background patterns. Instead of relying on images, it creates a complex, repeating design with linear-gradient and background-size, which ensures high performance and flexibility in resizing the pattern.

A showcase of advanced CSS capabilities for creating stunning 2D animations. It uses CSS @property for smooth property transitions, allowing you to animate box-shadow and other elements without compromising performance.

This Cyberpunk-inspired card features a complex box-shadow offset and text-shadow for the core CRT aesthetic, paired with a dynamic :hover state that uses transform to instantly swap the terminal view for a social icon grid.

An elegant UI element using the “frosted glass” effect (backdrop-filter), enhanced with complex box-shadow and pseudo-elements for depth and a realistic, shimmering glare.

An illusion of an endlessly rolling 3D cube, achieved by synchronizing two @keyframes animations for rotation and sliding with an offset transform-origin. The complex rotation animation uses intermediate steps for a “bounce” effect, while a neon glow and -webkit-box-reflect complete the futuristic look.

A skeuomorphic 3D button created with multi-layered box-shadow and linear-gradient to simulate volume, highlights, and shadows. On :hover, the box-shadow styles are animated, creating a “pressed” effect.

A demonstration of a non-trivial technique for creating inverted rounded corners using ::before pseudo-elements and box-shadow. This trick allows you to “carve out” complex shapes from parent blocks, bypassing the limitations of standard border-radius.

A customized Bootstrap 5 accordion that visually elevates the active panel using the modern :has() pseudo-class. By detecting the .accordion-button:not(.collapsed) state, it applies a bold border and hard shadow to the parent container, creating a distinct “pop-out” focus effect.

A vibrant CTA button featuring a neon linear gradient and a continuous ‘shine’ animation implemented via a moving radial gradient on the ::before pseudo-element. On hover, it scales up and intensifies its colored drop-shadow for enhanced interactivity.

A decorative keyboard with a realistic press effect and dynamic, iridescent RGB backlighting, reminiscent of gaming keyboards.

A sleek neuromorphic keyboard UI crafted entirely with CSS Grid and Pug. The design leverages layered box-shadow properties to create the signature soft, extruded button effect, while :hover and :active pseudo-classes simulate tactile key presses.

This JS-free form component achieves a distinct “neo-brutalist” aesthetic by pairing a solid border with a hard, offset box-shadow, creating a tactile, pseudo-3D effect. This visual system is applied to a modern Flexbox layout and is enhanced by polished micro-interactions, including a unique box-shadow outline on :hover and a clear background change on :focus for a cohesive user experience.

This demo blends a modern, adaptive layout powered by CSS Grid with a striking visual style. The fluid grid structure is populated by chunky form elements, whose pseudo-3D depth is crafted by pairing a thick border with a solid-color box-shadow, demonstrating a complete UI solution in pure CSS.