Shadows, glows and blur as live effects in Vectornation

Soft edges make flat vector artwork sit on the page. A faint shadow lifts a button off its background, a glow separates light text from a busy photograph, and a little blur suggests depth without redrawing anything. In Vectornation by Zaweba all of these are live effects, so the path underneath stays exactly as you drew it.

The set covers drop shadow, feather, inner glow, outer glow and Gaussian blur, with Long shadow and Stipple found under Stylise. Each can be changed or removed at any time, which matters because soft effects are the ones you most often want to tone down later.

Drop shadows that look like light

A drop shadow works best when it agrees with an imaginary light source. Pick a direction and keep every shadow on the page pointing the same way. Mixed directions make a layout look assembled from parts.

Keep the shadow small and soft for interface style artwork, and darker and tighter for things that should feel close to the surface. A shadow coloured with a deeper shade of the background usually looks more natural than pure black, especially on coloured pages.

Inner and outer glows

An outer glow spreads light out from the edge of a shape. Used in a pale colour behind dark text it acts as a halo that keeps the words readable over a detailed picture. Used in a bright colour it gives the neon look that signs and posters sometimes want.

An inner glow works inwards from the edge, and can make a flat shape look slightly rounded or lit from within. Both are easy to overdo. Lower the size until you can only just see the effect, then decide whether you need more.

Feather and Gaussian blur

Feather softens the edge of a shape so it fades into whatever is behind it. It is useful for vignettes, soft spotlights and for making a cut out sit more gently on a background.

Gaussian blur softens the whole object. A blurred copy of a shape placed beneath the sharp original gives you a custom shadow with any shape you like. Blur also helps with depth: blur the shapes meant to be far away a little and leave the near ones sharp.

Long shadow and Stipple

Long shadow, under Stylise, draws the long flat shadow often seen on icons and flat illustrations, stretching away from the shape. It suits bold, simple artwork with plenty of contrast.

Stipple, also under Stylise, gives a dotted, hand shaded feel. It can make a plain vector illustration read more like print or engraving, and works well on larger shapes where the texture has room to show.

Clicking through soft edges

Glows and shadows spread beyond the edge of their object, and that used to make it awkward to click whatever was underneath. Vectornation handles this for you: clicking only a shadow or glow selects what is underneath it, not the object casting it. You can work on a background without fighting the soft edges of everything placed on top.

Because the effects are live, decide what to finish with before you send the file anywhere. For print, check the document raster effects resolution, since soft effects are turned into pixels when they are output. For on screen work, keep effects consistent: one shadow style, one glow style, used the same way across a set of graphics.

The best rule with soft effects is restraint. Add one, look at the result at normal size, then halve it. Most artwork looks better with less shadow than you first think, and with live effects in Vectornation you can always add more back.