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Some of the best web page designs
out there rely on something more subtle and yet
more powerful than just form, color, or
composition: They creatively use textures to
make the surfaces of objects look and feel
different
Put together several dozens pixels, and they'll
make up some texture---the surface will
acquire a new dimension, so now you can tell not
only its shape or color but also "how it
feels." A texture can be rough, smooth,
lubricous, even warm or cold.
Sometimes, an unusual texture makes for a
greater emotional impact than differences in
color, size, or shape. This could be
compared to touch and smell which, despite
being more "primitive" senses than sight and
hearing, sometimes achieve a deeper
impact---they get "straight into your
soul." This often overlooked aspect of web
graphics is the subject of this month's
column.
Simple
textures, besides the most obvious "flat"
variety, comprise various geometric patterns
(some of them involving very interesting
pixel-level effects). Complex textures are
those made with halftoning, photographs, or
reproductions of various material surfaces.
. Like
colors,
textures on the screen can be more varied
than those in print, since the glossy paper
of magazines or the coarse raster of
newspaper prints often dampen the fine
texture in the image. Although screen
resolution is inferior to printing devices,
the capability of screen pixels to emit
their own light and their wider color gamut
allow them to create some very engaging
textures.
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