Line shadow text

Also called striped shadow text, line shadow, or animated stripe shadow

Bold display text with an offset shadow made of thin diagonal stripes that slide continuously, for a retro print look with a little motion.

What is Line shadow text?

Line shadow text pairs a heavy headline with a copy of itself shifted down and to the right. The copy is filled with thin diagonal stripes: a small linear-gradient tile, clipped to the letters with background-clip: text. Sliding the tile by exactly one tile width on a loop makes the stripes crawl with no visible jump.

It suits posters, launch pages, event banners, and sports or editorial headlines that want a printed, retro feel. It needs big, heavy type, about 64px or larger in a black or extra-bold weight, so the stripes have room to show beside the letters.

Size the offset and the stripe tile in em, so they scale with the headline. Render the shadow as an aria-hidden copy behind the real text, so screen readers hear the word once. Animating background-position repaints only the shadow, which is fine for a headline. Stop the slide when someone prefers reduced motion; the still stripes keep the look.

Often confused with

Drop shadow
A drop shadow is a soft, blurred copy of a shape's outline. A line shadow is a hard-edged copy filled with moving stripes.
All terms

Drop shadow

A shadow cast behind an element to make it look raised off the page, with larger, softer shadows signaling higher elevation.

Neo-brutalism

A bold UI style with thick black borders, hard offset shadows, flat bright colors, and chunky type that looks raw on purpose.

Comic text

Pop-art lettering in the style of comic books: heavy outlined capitals, a hard offset shadow, halftone dots, and a punchy pop-in entrance.

Gradient text

Text filled with a color gradient instead of a solid color, made by painting a gradient background and clipping it to the shape of the letters.

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