How to add a drop shadow to an image in Python

Whether an app feature or a part of your photo upload flow, drop shadows add easy visual interest to virtually any image. Setting up an automated system to handle them is a chore, however. To save us from this irritation, an API can be used that lets us create customizable drop shadows in a couple simple steps.

Let’s install the client first:

pip install cloudmersive-image-api-client

Next we should set up a function call for edit_drop_shadow and enter our parameters for the offset, sigma, and opacity.

from __future__ import print_function
import time
import cloudmersive_image_api_client
from cloudmersive_image_api_client.rest import ApiException
from pprint import pprint
# Configure API key authorization: Apikey
configuration = cloudmersive_image_api_client.Configuration()
configuration.api_key['Apikey'] = 'YOUR_API_KEY'
# Uncomment below to setup prefix (e.g. Bearer) for API key, if needed
# configuration.api_key_prefix['Apikey'] = 'Bearer'
# create an instance of the API class
api_instance = cloudmersive_image_api_client.EditApi(cloudmersive_image_api_client.ApiClient(configuration))
x = 56 # int | Horizontal (X) offset of the drop shadow
y = 56 # int | Vertical (Y) offset of the drop shadow
sigma = 56 # int | Sigma (blur distance) of the drop shadow
opacity = 56 # int | Opacity of the drop shadow; 0 is 0% and 100 is 100%
image_file = '/path/to/file' # file | Image file to perform the operation on.  Common file formats such as PNG, JPEG are supported.
try:
# Add a customizeable drop shadow to an image
api_response = api_instance.edit_drop_shadow(x, y, sigma, opacity, image_file)
pprint(api_response)
except ApiException as e:
print("Exception when calling EditApi->edit_drop_shadow: %s\n" % e)

Drop in an image and voila, your drop shadow is complete! Here’s what it looks like using 15, 25, 5, and 80 for horizontal and vertical offset, sigma, and opacity, respectively.