Should flag

CSS colored glows on dark background

Blue glow

box-shadow: 0 0 20px rgba(59, 130, 246, 0.4)

Purple glow

box-shadow: 0 0 25px rgba(139, 92, 246, 0.35)

Cyan glow

box-shadow: 0 0 15px rgba(6, 182, 212, 0.5)

Multi-shadow with colored glow

Normal shadow + purple glow combined.

Inline-style glow (regex path)

Inline pink glow

Inline style for regex detection path.

Modern color formats, var() refs, text-shadow

OKLCH glow

box-shadow: 0 0 18px oklch(0.72 0.15 195 / 0.5)

Hex glow

box-shadow: 0 0 16px #3b82f6

HSL glow

box-shadow: 0 0 22px hsl(280, 80%, 60%)

Glow via var()

box-shadow: 0 0 10px var(--fixture-glow)

Glowing text

text-shadow: 0 0 12px #22d3ee on the heading.

Zero-offset halo on LIGHT background

Chromatic halo on light page

box-shadow: 0 0 20px oklch(0.65 0.2 300 / 0.45)

Zero-offset halo on unreadable (image) surface

Halo over photo background

box-shadow: 0 0 26px rgba(217, 70, 239, 0.5)

Colored glow under an opaque gradient over an image (browser)

Opaque dark gradient covers the photo

box-shadow: 0 6px 22px rgba(249, 115, 22, 0.5)

Glows above the perceptibility floor

197x40 CTA, 0 0 24px rgba(0, 169, 255, 0.6).

96x96 tile under a six-layer tinted elevation ramp.

Should pass

Light page + colored shadow

Colored shadow on light background

Not dark mode, colored shadow is fine.

Dark cards with neutral shadows

Normal gray shadow on dark card

Gray/black shadow is not a glow.

Focus ring (spread, no blur)

Functional ring, not decorative glow.

Tiny blur (<5px)

Too subtle to be "glowing".

Small dark elevation

Subtle shadow on dark card.

Medium dark elevation

Standard dark card shadow.

Large dark elevation

Prominent shadow on dark card.

Inset shadow

Inner shadow, not a glow.

Multi-shadow dark card

Layered gray shadows, no color glow.

Medium-gray background (not dark enough)

Not dark enough background

Medium gray doesn't qualify as "dark mode".

Colored drop shadow / neutral halo on light background

Offset colored drop shadow

Real drop shadow with a color tint — not a halo.

Soft neutral halo

Achromatic zero-offset shadow is ambient elevation.

Offset chromatic shadow on unreadable (image) surface

Offset colored shadow over photo background

Surface unknown, offset shadow — abstain, not flag.

Offset chromatic shadow under a translucent gradient over an image

The wash blends with unknowable image pixels

Surface unknown — abstain, never score the wash stops as dark.

Neutral text-shadow on dark card

Offset neutral text-shadow

Legibility aid, not a glow.

Light elevated cards

Small elevation (Tailwind shadow-sm)

Standard subtle card shadow.

Medium elevation (Tailwind shadow-md)

Standard card shadow.

Warm deep shadow

Large spread neutral shadow.

Chromatic halos under the perceptibility floor

3x23px typing caret, half faded mid-blink.

393x42 row, 0 4px 20px rgba(149, 100, 255, 0.1).

280x148 panel, 0 0 40px -22px rgba(52, 211, 153, 0.4).

252x123 dropdown at opacity 0.

Halo out of scale with a tiny element (browser only)

6x6px status LED with an 8px halo: four times its area.

5x8px pulse on a connector: five times its area.