The static postbuckling of flat and doubly-curved shallow panels under the combined action of a system of uniaxial/biaxial compressive edge loads and a lateral pressure field is investigated, and the effects of transverse shear, initial geometric imperfections and tangential edge constraints upon load carrying capacity of curved panels are emphasized. Comparisons of the classical and shear deformable theories are made and issues related to the sensitivity to the snap-through behavior are discussed. A variety of loading systems and panel geometries are considered in the numerical illustrations and pertinent conclusions related to the postbuckling response are outlined.NOTATIONa α β , a α β covariant, contravariant metric components of the mid-surface σ, respectivelyb 1 1 ( 1R 1 ),b 2 2 ( 1R 2 ) principal curvatures of σb α β curvature tensor of σc α β two-dimensional permutation symbolD plate/shell bending stiffnesse i j three-dimensional strain tensorE α β ω ρ , E α β ω ρ tensor of elastic moduli and their modified counterparts, respectivelyE, E Young's modulus, tangential and normal to the isotropy surface, respectivelyF Airy's potential functionG, G tangential and transverse shear modulus to the isotropy surface, respectivelyh total thickness of the plate shellH average curvature of σK 2 transverse shear correction factorl 1 , l 2 length and width of the flat/curved panelL 1 1 , L 2 2 dimensionless applied edge loads, [ (N 1 1 , N 2 2 )l 2 1 π 2 D ]p 3 , p m n , p * lateral pressure, the coefficients in the Fourier Series development, nondimensional pressure amplitude ( p 1 1 l 4 1 Eh 4 )u α , u 3 tangential and transverse displacement quantities of the points of σu 3 initial geometric imperfectionδ A , δ H tracing quantities identifying the contribution brought by transverse normal stress and higher order effects, respectivelyδ, δ 0 nondimensional amplitude of transverse deflection and geometric imperfection, respectively ( fh; f 0 h)Δ 1 , 1 end-shortening in the x 1 direction ( 1 = Δ 1 10 2 )λ m , μ n mπl 1 ,nπl 2 ν, ν Poisson's ratios, tangential and normal to the isotropy surface, respectively