Web Design - Adding a Drop Shadow

It recently came to my attention that many websites feature a drop shadow separating the body from the background. The body of the site would be centered on the page and the background would consist of a solid color or a pattern (.jpg image file most likely). The drop shadow creates a nice feeling of depth and is a eye-catching divider between the content of the site and the background. If set up properly, the drop shadow will slide with your website as the browser window is sized larger or smaller. This technique can be accomplished in a couple different ways.

Example One:

Create a new document in Adobe Photoshop sized accordingly with your website content (If working in Dreamweaver, I recommend converting to a centered table). You will create a new layer and draw a rectangle slightly smaller than your entire document. Using Layer Styles, create an Outer Glow in the color of your choice. Save the image into your website images folder as a .jpg with a low resolution (72 should do). In Dreamweaver, select your entire table and locate the background image option in your Properties Window. Add the .jpg you have created and then under Page Properties, change the background color or add a background image file to coordinate with your website content.

Example Two:

This example uses CSS to create the effect. Rather than writing it all out, I'll simply insert the following link that outlines the instructions.

http://www.webdesignerforum.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=307