I am applying a drop shadow to selected text. I can tell something really vague is happening as the backgrop gets ever so slightly darker. But I cand seem to get an changes I make in the Drop Shadow dialogue box to affect a change. It used to work. Any thoguhts?

OS?

Version of Illustrator?

And if you could post a screen shot of the dialog box, that would be helpful as well.

Ooops, sorry. XP Pro running CS3.

If you can't do a screen shot of the dialog box, what are your settings for the dropshadow?

Also what color text/dropshadow/background? What are your Document Raster Effect Settings?

Just as a guess at this point, have you tried deleting prefs (per the FAQ section)?

Here are the drop shadow setting that I usually apply that wont work now:

<http://207.234.221.182/drop.gif>

Here is the Raster settings screen:

<http://207.234.221.182/raster.gif>

Here's the drop shadow on text that used to occur:

<http://207.234.221.182/drop2.gif>

Also, deleted the prefs, but no change.

Sorry for the delay, but for some reason I couldn't log on to this group earlier (about two hours ago). I'd enter my name, etc. and it would just hang there forever. Anyway . . .

First, a black dropshadow is going to be all but invisible on that dark background. Set to multiply, forget it.

Second, your x/y offset values are zero and your blur a measly 0.01. Any dropshadow you have is directly behind the letters, with no spread.

First, temporarily place the text on a light background (say, yellow), so you can see what is happening. Then give the shadow a bit of x/y offset (.02 or .03 anyway). Once you can see it, play with the numbers until you get one you like. Then you will need to play with color and blending mode until you get something that shows up against that dark background (shadows in the dark and all that). You may well find that almost any dropshadow will be too subtle for that small letter/dark background combination.

Good luck.

Edited to add: unless this is strictly for screen use, you might want to go to at least medium on the raster effects before printing.

Thanks for the reply. I agree about the dark background making most of it unseen. However Im trying to help the letter pop on the few lighter areas. And when I apply the shadow to it nothing changes even there. I will experiemnt with your points and rpoert back ;^)

Black with multiply on any sort ofa medium to dark purple has a bad habit of disappearing. More important is to give it some x/y offset.

Try just putting a small black box over the lighter area and setting the blend to multiply 75%. That will give you an idea of the absolute best the dropshadow will show up.