Tailwind CSS shadow-sm Class

The Tailwind CSS shadow-sm utility applies box-shadow: 0 1px 2px 0 rgb(0 0 0 / 0.05); to an element when added to its class attribute. It applies the smallest box shadow. A barely visible elevation perfect for input fields, subtle card borders, and low-emphasis elements.

This utility is part of Tailwind's Effects module, designed for applying visual effects including shadows, opacity, rings, and blur filters to elements. In Tailwind's utility-first workflow, you add shadow-sm directly to your HTML elements rather than writing custom CSS. This approach accelerates development and keeps styles co-located with your markup, making it easy to see exactly how each element is styled at a glance.

Common responsive variants include sm:shadow-sm, md:shadow-sm, lg:shadow-sm, and xl:shadow-sm, allowing different behavior at each breakpoint. State variants like hover:shadow-sm and focus:shadow-sm enable interactive styling without any JavaScript. You can also combine multiple variants for fine-grained control over when the utility applies.

This class works well alongside `shadow`, `shadow-md`, `shadow-none`, `rounded` to build complete, production-ready interfaces. Tailwind's tree-shaking ensures only utilities you actually use appear in your final CSS bundle, keeping file sizes minimal. Browser support for the underlying CSS is excellent across Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.