Life & fun · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to Four Shadows

Time-aware algorithm driven shadows for icons

Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Four Shadows launched in 2014; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

1. 1PA
   Poxi – A Hackable Pixel Art Editor▲144

   2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

2. 2SI
   Scratchpad.io - a real-time HTML and CSS editor▲298

   2012 · scratchpad.io · its alternatives →

3. 3
   Adaptive Backgrounds▲231

   Extract dominant colours from images

   2014 · its alternatives →

4. 4S
   sidebranch▲102

   Easy git-based visual diffing

   10d ago · sidebranch.dev · its alternatives →

5. 5MA
   Monodraw, an ASCII Art Editor for Mac▲141

   2015 · monodraw.com · its alternatives →

6. 6
   Shade▲131

   Gradient explorer

   2015 · its alternatives →

7. 7GJ
   gBoxShadow.js – Gravity-Sensing box-shadow for flat UI▲43

   2015 · github.com · its alternatives →

8. 8LA
   Littlebox, a pure CSS icon library – worth continuing?▲192

   2015 · littlebox.cabmaddux.com · its alternatives →

9. 9A4
   Artpip – 4k fine art for your desktop▲142

   2017 · artpip.com · its alternatives →

10. 10SI
    Search icons visually▲87

    2019 · compute.vision · its alternatives →

11. 11
    Pixel Drifter▲69

    A powerful pixel-sorting tool written in Java

    2014 · its alternatives →

12. 12SF
    Sneakers – Fast background processing for Ruby▲114

    2014 · sneakers.io · its alternatives →

13. 13
    Anicons▲112

    A customisable icon library for motion designers

    2014 · its alternatives →

14. 14
    Color Library▲116

    Automated color separation

    2016 · its alternatives →

15. 15MA
    MyIcons – a flat icon manager and font builder for team▲15

    2014 · io-meter.com · its alternatives →

16. 16
    Layout – Cropping is Hard▲68

    Figma, and the future of design tools

    2015 · its alternatives →

17. 17OP
    Onion Packer – An open source Textures and Images organizer▲32

    2017 · mikepicker.github.io · its alternatives →

18. 18
    RGB – #15: Snap, Kernel and Port▲55

    Ports, unencrypted kernels and a chilly new mobile plan

    2016 · its alternatives →

19. 19SA
    Shade. A Free Mac App to hide your messy desktop.▲16

    2012 · itunes.apple.com · its alternatives →

20. 20
    Subtle Patterns▲53

    A plethora of background patterns for Photoshop

    2015 · its alternatives →

21. 21WD
    [WebGL Demo] Indirect Lighting Using Reflective Shadow Maps▲6

    2017 · erkaman.github.io · its alternatives →

22. 22CF
    Curated, free collection of trendy CSS text shadows▲9

    2017 · mixfont.com · its alternatives →

23. 23SS
    Styli.sh – A wallpaper switcher for most Linux desktop environments▲8

    2021 · github.com · its alternatives →

24. 24AA
    An Algorithm to Generate Beautiful Color Palettes▲8

    2018 · chris.de · its alternatives →

Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →