Hello! My name is Liz Staley and I’m a long-time user of Clip Studio Paint (I started using the program back when it was known as Manga Studio 4!). I was a beta-tester on the Manga Studio 5 program and for Clip Studio Paint, and I have written three books and several video courses about the program. Many of you probably know my name from those books, in fact. I write weekly posts on Graphixly.com and on CSP Tips, so be sure to come back every week to learn more Clip Studio Tips and Tricks from me!

As of writing this in July of 2026, Clip Studio Paint Ver 5.1.0 has just been released, and there are some much awaited features in this update that I’m really excited for. You can get this update by either having a Clip Studio subscription or if you are currently subscribed to the Update Pass.

In this article we will cover the following topics:

How to Update Clip Studio Paint

Using the Drop Shadow Filter

Let’s take a look!

How to Update Clip Studio Paint

If you have a Clip Studio subscription or currently have the Update Pass, you will be able to update to Ver 5.1.0. 

When starting up your Clip Studio app, make sure you are logged in to your account. If you are and can access the update, you will see a red notification dot in the top right on the Menu icon.

Click the Menu and then “Update to the latest version”.

Next you can click on Update to begin the download and update process. To read about the new features, click on ‘Release Notes’.

Once you’ve updated, read on!

Using the Drop Shadow Filter

To use the drop shadow filter effectively, everything you want included in the drop shadow should be on the same layer OR anything you do not want included should have the layer visibility turned to OFF. The image I’m using for the example has the character art on many different layers and has a background, so I hid all the background layers so that only the character art is showing. We don’t have to merge these layers right now because the drop shadow filter can make a merged copy.

There are two ways to load the Drop Shadow filter. One is by clicking Filter - Effect - Drop Shadow. You can use this method if your layers are already merged and you only want to add the drop shadow.

I’m going to be using Filter - Quick Effects - Apply to all. This will create a merged layer of all the visible layers that the filter will be applied to. You can also use “apply to current layer” if you wish to just apply a drop shadow to the currently active layer.

In the Quick Effects window, click on Drop Shadow.

Now let’s go over the options for the Drop Shadow filter. The “blur” slider controls the amount of fuzziness or sharpness of the drop shadow. Below you can see two examples, with the left shadow set to a low number and the right set to a very high number. 

“Angle” refers to the angle of the light source for the drop shadow, and “Distance” is how far away or close the shadow is to the object. You can adjust these with the sliders, however there is a much easier and more intuitive way to adjust these settings! In the preview window you will see an icon shaped like two double-ended arrows. Clicking this icon and dragging it changes both the angle and distance sliders based on where you move the shadow to, and I honestly think this is a much easier way to adjust the position of your shadow!

Opacity in this filter is the same as opacity in layers. Setting the number higher makes the shadow less opaque and therefore block out more of the image behind the drop shadow, while making the number lower makes it more transparent and shows more of any image or color behind the shadow. 

To change the color of the shadow, click on the box by the “Shadow color” option. Choose a new color with the color picker.

If you make a change you don’t like, you can either reset everything back to default using the “Reset Settings” option below the Shadow Color option, or simply click the Undo arrow to go back through the changes you’ve made. Once you like the look of the shadow, click on OK to create your drop shadow. 

And our drop shadow is complete! Below is a comparison of this image with the method I’ve used in the past to create a drop shadow manually on the left and the new drop shadow filter results on the right. 

Conclusion

I’m so excited for the new features in this update and can’t wait to explore them over the next few weeks and see what they can do! 

For more information on CLIP Studio Paint, please visit https://www.clipstudio.net/en or https://graphixly.com