Adding Dropshadows with Splashup
Dropshadows are super cool, and can be added to images, shapes, and text. The trick is to learn moderation, because too much dropshadow can make your graphic look dated, or your text difficult to read.
The Basics
For this example, I'm going to add a drop shadow to some text. So what I did was went to File-->New, and created a new image at 500 pixels wide and 100 pixels tall. In Splashup, you have to fill in the background color, so select the Fill tool in your toolbar to the left (it looks like a tipping paint bucket), make sure that the background color you want is selected in the color box, and click over your new file. Then I typed in my text.
The next step is to go to your Layers window, and click on the little magic wand icon, and a popup will appear. In the drop down at the top, select Drop Shadow from the list, and click the Add button.
New items will appear in the popup window and the default drop shadow settings will be displayed on your image. Now, the default settings are a little too bold for my taste, but it's a personal preference.
Change just a few settings and you've got a much more professional look. What I did was just changed the Distance setting to 2. Click OK.
Much better, don't you think? Play around with it, and try adding dropshadows to any text that you add over photos, as it will make it stand out more.