Easily Make a Long Shadow Text Effect in Illustrator

The Long Shadow effect has been around for a while and is still a valuable resource that designer's often use on many different projects. Altrought this effect is more often made in Photoshop, you probably will find out that is much easier (and quicker) to make it in Illustrator. So today, I will show you how you can make a fully editable Long Shadow Text Effect in Illustrator using nothing but the default tools and in less than 5 minutes.

Step 1

Open Illustrator and make a new file at any size you want. In this case I will make mine at 1800 x 1200 px.

Step 2

Select the Type Tool (T) and using any font you want, type your text. Here I will be using CocoSharp Heavy at 300 pt with a simple "Long Shadow" text in 2 lines.

Step 3

In the tools panel, set both the Fill and Stroke of your text to "none".

Step 4

With the text selected, go to Window > Appearance.

Step 5

Click on the "Add New Stroke" icon (a Fill layer will also be added). Set the stroke Weight to 4 pt and the stroke color to the same color you want to use for your shadow, which in this case is Black.

Step 6

Click on the "Add New Effect" icon and from the dropdown list select Path > Offset Path.

Step 7

In the Offset Path window apply the following settings and click OK.

Step 8

Select the Fill layer and set any color you want to use for your text, which in this case is Yellow.

Step 9

Click on the "Add New Fill" icon and set the color to the same you've used for your stroke, which in this case is Black.

Step 10

Next, and with the black fill selected, click on the "Add New Effect" icon and from the dropdown list select Distort & Transform > Transform.

Step 11

In the Transform Effect window, apply the following values and click OK.

Step 12

Now that the effect is made, is a good idea to save it for a future use. To do that, go to Window > Graphic Styles.

Step 13

Lastly, with your text selected, click on the "New Graphic Style" icon in the Graphic Styles window to add the new effect to your Library.

Some Final Notes:

Now that you know how to make a long shadow text effect in Illustrator, the next time you want to apply this effect to any other text, simply select your text, go to the Graphic Styles window and click on your new long shadow style. If you later decide to change the shadow or text color, you can do that in the Appearance Panel.