This example uses just the DropShadow filter. If you are looking at this in IE with font-smoothing on, the rendering of the fonts leave a lot to be desired.

This example has a background color with the DropShadow effect. The font Note that shadow is applied the element's borders, which is not what we want.

This example uses the Chroma filter as well as DropShadow. Things look much nicer — with or without font-smoothing.