Drop shadows, etc. in Illustrator 7.0

[Chuck_McCollum@adobeforums.com]

I've used the "Drop Shadow" option in the Filters>Stylize menue--but I'm looking to create a feathered, or blurry shadow. Is there a way to do this? I tried rasterizing the text and taking it into Photoshop--and using a gaussian blur, which looks great--but then I can't get it back into Illustrator without the transparent background becoming white.
Can anyone help me with this?

Chuck

[Scott_Falkner@adobeforums.com]

Delete your Illustrator preferences (see FAQs). This is a long standing bug in Illustrator.

[Chuck_McCollum@adobeforums.com]

I must be an idiot. I deleted the aiprefs file, and then opened Illustrator 7.0 to try the drop shadow again. Same deal. I create a drop shadow, set the offset and the intensity (these are the only options available while creating the shadow). It creates a hard-edged shadow behind the object. I can find no way to blur the shadow. The Filters>Blur>radial blur is greyed out. I can find no no reference to blurring the drop shadow in the manual. Am I simply trying to do the inmpossible--or am I, like I've speculated, just an idiot (The two may still be mutually exclusive...)?

Chuck McCollum

[Scott_Falkner@adobeforums.com]

Illustrator 7, you say? There's no drop shadow feature in that program.

[Chuck_McCollum@adobeforums.com]

Uh...okay--I'm not THAT much of an idiot. There IS a drop shadow feature in v. 7.0 under filters>stylize. It just seems to be very limited.

[Scott_Falkner@adobeforums.com]

Oh, I guess there was. Illustrator 7 didn't have nearly the nubmer of effects as later versions. Things like feathering and blurring were non-existant. I guess the drop shadow in AI7 has no blur feature.

For what you want you'll need to upgrade to at least version 9, if you can get it. Otherwise you're stuck with the feature-rich, but agravating, version 11 (also called CS).

If you need your drop shadow on a solid colour, you can use Photoshop layers to achieve that effect, then import your artork in AI. If you need if on top of Illustrator artwork, you'll have to rasterize the artwork in Photoshop and to the entire effect there.

[Chuck_McCollum@adobeforums.com]

Thanks for the info, and the suggestions. Wow--Folks don't seem too thrilled with CS...
Chuck