Texture

Texture is the perceived surface quality of an object, detected through both touch and sight. Tactile texture describes how a surface feels—its roughness, smoothness, hardness, temperature, and granularity—while visual texture refers to the impression of texture created by a surface’s pattern, shading, and contrast, which can be real or simulated without physical contact.

In art and design, texture contributes to material realism, mood, and spatial depth. Real textures arise from actual surface finishes and materials, whereas implied textures are rendered through brushwork, pattern, or photographic detail to suggest surface qualities. Texture also interacts with light and color to influence how materials are perceived and valued.

In materials science, texture can denote crystallographic texture—the preferred orientation of grains in a polycrystalline solid. This orientation affects mechanical properties and anisotropy, such as strength and ductility. It is measured with diffraction techniques and electron microscopy, and it can be engineered through processing steps like rolling, deformation, and annealing.

In digital media, texture refers to an image or procedural pattern mapped onto a three-dimensional surface to add detail without increasing geometry. Textures are often tiled and may be combined with normal, specular, or displacement maps to simulate realistic lighting and relief. Texture concepts also appear in other domains, including food science, where texture describes mouthfeel attributes such as crunch, chewiness, or creaminess.