The StackXYBarRenderer always appears to show shadows, regardless of whether or not the setShadowVisible(false) method is used. It would appear as though this may be due to the StackedXYBarRenderer incorrectly setting the pass parameter to the drawItem method if (pass == 0) { getBarPainter().paintBarShadow(g2, this, series, item, bar, barBase, false); } I am assuming that there should probably be a check ...