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100 Beautiful Free Textures
Use of texture in Web design is extremely common. Part of the reason textures are so useful to designers is the relative ease of the integrating one into a design if a high-quality textured image already exists, not to mention the endless possibilities. Fortunately, plenty of photographers and designers are willing to share their work with the rest of us so that we can use them in a number of different ways.
In this post, we’ll look at 100 different textures in a wide variety of different categories. Of course, each image is linked to the source where it can be downloaded. As with any type of freebie, be sure to read the terms and conditions or stipulations by the owner before using it in your work.
For more on textures see:
[Offtopic: by the way, did you already get your copy of the brand new Smashing Book?]
1. Wool Textures
2. Leather Textures
3. Denim Textures
4. Cardboard Textures
5. Paper Textures
6. Wood Textures
7. Wall Textures
8. Metallic Textures
9. Grunge Textures
10. Gritty Textures
11. Granular Textures
12. Water Textures
13. Glass Textures
14. Grass Textures
15. Tiled Textures
16. Modern Textures
(al)
Steven Snell has been designing websites for several years. He actively maintains a few blogs of his own, including DesignM.ag, which regularly provides articles and resources for web designers.
(4 votes, average: 3.25 out of 5)
Loading ...- 84 Comments
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February 6th, 2009 5:14 amGreat resource, as always! Thanks guys!
- 3February 6th, 2009 5:23 am
Now THAT is useful! You couldn’t have done that 2 days ago; when i was searching for a grass shot!
- 4February 6th, 2009 5:24 am
Nice Collection Steven…. Thanks for sharing !!
Useful Collection of some of the Nice Textures for web Design ppls.
- 5February 6th, 2009 5:26 am
Someone zip them all up and host them, you’ll be a hero.
- 6February 6th, 2009 5:28 am
As usually, a great post with a great collection! Congratulations !
- 7February 6th, 2009 5:29 am
nice collection very useful thank you
- 8February 6th, 2009 5:44 am
It would be great if you followed this up with a tutorial showing examples on how to apply these textures to your work (specially web-pages). I usually find texture-packs really cool and i love the grunge feel of a website, but actually getting there is usually tougher than expected.
- 9February 6th, 2009 5:53 am
Some fail and look tilted. Also resolution may raise dramatically your document size, you have to implement it wisely.
- 10February 6th, 2009 5:53 am
… what Anwar said.
- 11February 6th, 2009 6:06 am
Wow, Right Time, I’m now searching water texture for projects, thanks SM.
Anyway, Notice that Comment #4 has commentor’s web site link. How it comes? Just wanna know I’m not spammer.
- 12February 6th, 2009 6:36 am
Looks like you just pillaged this post on OpenSourceHunter.
I agree with Anwar, would be cool to see some posts on implementing textures in web site design.
- 13February 6th, 2009 6:44 am
@Anwar and @Harvey: please check the links mentioned in the beginning of the post.
- 14February 6th, 2009 6:46 am
One of the greatest collections ever.Thumbs Up SM.
- 15February 6th, 2009 6:53 am
Some of these feel like snapshots, but others look very useful. I’m using the 5th wool texture for a brochure right now. Thanks for the great post!
- 16February 6th, 2009 7:15 am
mmm delicious!
- 17February 6th, 2009 7:24 am
Thanks!
I added this to my evernote (evernote.com) in case i ever need these for photoshop!
Thanks again!
- 18February 6th, 2009 7:35 am
Very nice! The hairy leg is gross but will make sure to use the rest haha
- 19February 6th, 2009 8:15 am
Cool! Thanks!
- 20February 6th, 2009 8:22 am
Lovely! I was looking some wood textures for my projects, now – I’ve got more then I’m expected! Thanks :)
- 21February 6th, 2009 8:29 am
This is fantastic – thank you very much
- 22February 6th, 2009 8:36 am
I like the grit and grunge. Don’t see much use for the others. Thanks for the links!
- 23February 6th, 2009 9:22 am
sweet post! the carpet ones kind of freak me out though…. :)
- 24February 6th, 2009 10:43 am
great! awsome! tnx a lot!!
- 25February 6th, 2009 11:04 am
Now we’re talkin! These are GREAT textures. This is the first time in a while I’ve been truly inspired by a smashing post.
- 26February 6th, 2009 11:19 am
What a wonderful collection of textures. Definitely going to look at using some.
- 27February 6th, 2009 12:34 pm
Most useful post ever. Thanks you guys :D
- 28February 6th, 2009 1:14 pm
So many references at the same place. Clap, clap for you Smash!
- 29February 6th, 2009 1:56 pm
Hooray and ring the bell!
- 30February 6th, 2009 3:44 pm
very nice! wonderful selection here for sure.
- 31February 6th, 2009 5:52 pm
Can’t get enough from you.
Thank You.
- 32February 6th, 2009 7:21 pm
That’s really cool :)) Thanks!
Waiting to see more textures from smashingmag … hopefully tileable ;) - 33February 6th, 2009 8:32 pm
nice collection light dose post feeling light cloudy
- 34February 7th, 2009 3:28 am
Good Resource.
- 35February 7th, 2009 4:19 am
Fantastic Collection.
Really good work. - 36February 7th, 2009 6:16 am
Nice list! I frequently use the site imageafter.com. There are tons of free, high-resolution textures there. Check it out.
- 37February 7th, 2009 7:37 am
Very nice, but I do wish that they were tile-able. Many of these are definitely not. They would have to be used as large images. I like subtle textures in the back of web pages.
- 38February 7th, 2009 1:12 pm
Some NEW examples of textures used in web design would have been nice. Also, as WackoJacko suggests, images suitable for tiling would have been nice.
- 39February 7th, 2009 2:29 pm
Really nice, and will be usefull, thanks ! I like Modern textures.
- 40February 7th, 2009 6:42 pm
Ooh…I love the wool textures. Great post!
- 41February 7th, 2009 7:47 pm
So thanks to your nice! :D
- 42February 7th, 2009 10:54 pm
i love you !!!
- 43February 8th, 2009 4:15 am
Thanks. Very good idea. bye
- 44February 8th, 2009 3:06 pm
Nice collection, thank you very much.
- 45February 8th, 2009 6:44 pm
very very useful..
thank you very much. - 46February 9th, 2009 12:27 am
Great collection, surely ill be needing this in the near future. Thanks SM!
- 47February 9th, 2009 2:18 am
great work steve… i didnt copy neither did i learn… but felt happy aba the way in which the shots were taken….
inspiring work…. keep it up….
- 48February 9th, 2009 1:33 pm
I’m so loving the modern textures :)
- 49February 9th, 2009 2:21 pm
Great texture collection. Thanks!
- 50February 9th, 2009 3:16 pm
Awesome collection, i can already see about 10 or more that will find there way into my designs.
- 51February 9th, 2009 3:36 pm
sorry for the self-plug, but if you find this useful you would also be interested in a free grunge texture pack I just released and posted in the smashing magazine forums. I also have a link to a texture tutorial in the same forum post.
http://forum.smashingmagazine.com/freebies-f4/free-hi-res-grunge-textures-pack-t314.html
Hope you find them useful!
- 52February 9th, 2009 6:26 pm
Someone likely already commented on this, but one of your wall textures links to http://www.sxc.hu, which requires that you create an account with the following mandatory fields:
______________________
* First name
* Last name
* Phone number
* Street address
* City
* State / Province
* Country
* Zip / Postal code
______________________There’s just one word for this – LAME! The collection as a whole is great, but I still found myself saying, “WTF?”
- 53February 10th, 2009 12:06 am
wow…thats exactly what I was looking for…thanks for sharing
- 54February 10th, 2009 4:53 am
My friend and I are artists (Red Labor) and we do a lot of work with textures in our art and graphic design for t-shirts, wallets and messenger bags. We really like to make our own textures from scratch and scan them in; they are much higher quality and our designs are more unique that way. If you want to see some of our textures check them out here: http://www.redlabor.com/analogue/
This is a good list of free textures and I encourage everyone to push beyond this and try making your own on paper and then scan or photograph them. I hope you like our art, too!
-Red Labor
- 55February 10th, 2009 5:26 am
These are really great. Thanks for sharing!
- 56February 10th, 2009 6:37 am
very impressive textures,Few of them will certainly find there way into my designs.
- 57February 10th, 2009 11:56 am
wow awesome! Thanks a lot!
- 58February 10th, 2009 11:00 pm
these textures are superb! I say, the variety is fantasic and the clarity unbelievable! great collection!
- 59February 10th, 2009 11:50 pm
oh man, that is some useful stuff!! i am so addicted to textures right now…amazing what a difference it makes. Even the hairy legs will come in handy. haha. i’d love to see other people’s works using these….I’m a novice..but stuff like this always helps
- 60February 11th, 2009 12:16 am
Great texture collection. Thanks!
- 61February 13th, 2009 5:32 am
the textures are great, tnx!
- 62February 18th, 2009 6:39 am
the broken glass is too good.very useful
- 63February 19th, 2009 6:42 am
I really love all of those textures, they are all profesional and unique.
- 64February 22nd, 2009 7:47 pm
很好~~~
- 65February 25th, 2009 1:21 pm
Thanks
- 66March 8th, 2009 3:03 pm
Wow. This is some nice work. Great crisp detail. Thanks.
- 67March 9th, 2009 8:32 am
Hey all… I compressed all of these images into a ZIP.
Do NOT do this for public download!
- 68March 12th, 2009 1:19 pm
WOW-!! Thank you so much, so very generous. extremely useful & beautiful images. ;()
- 69March 14th, 2009 5:08 am
Thanks!
- 70March 18th, 2009 6:31 pm
love the design you have on your site… more power!
- 71March 24th, 2009 2:00 am
thank you ! love this!
- 72April 2nd, 2009 4:09 pm
Gracias!!
- 73April 5th, 2009 5:37 pm
Las texturas son fantásticas!!!
- 74April 9th, 2009 5:24 am
Awesome collection :)
I wanna also share those nice free High Resolution Textures Packs with all
http://dezign-mag.com/?p=134 - 75April 15th, 2009 10:59 am
Thank you very much!!!! and congratulations ;)
- 76May 12th, 2009 10:29 am
ccooool man
- 77June 18th, 2009 7:34 am
wow~!!
great~
Thank you~
- 78July 2nd, 2009 11:11 pm
Great resource, as always! Thanks guys!
- 79September 20th, 2009 12:06 am
we usefull textures it helpme alot thanks
- 80November 28th, 2009 11:46 am
Some free HD textures in my picasa web album : http://picasaweb.google.com/clement.biron/Textures#
- 81December 28th, 2009 4:23 am
So nice collection!!!!
Thanks so much!!! - 82January 3rd, 2010 11:37 am
Fantastic collection of textures. I will definitely be incorporating some of these into my work as well as passing this post along as an excellent resource.
Was hoping for some fur in the mix *rowl*…
Awesome and thanks again!!!
WM
- 83January 28th, 2010 11:36 pm
Hi there sorry for the link but you also find there free good textures, my friend have shared his free textures pack in: http://www.texturepalace.com. This pack is amazing!
Tx again: Greg15
- 84February 7th, 2010 5:42 am
Parabéns. Metais:bronze, ouro, prata, metais ondulados (telha) é muito lindo. Grato.
- 00
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Wow, this is going to be useful ! thanks for this post !