Hacking the Digital Print: Alternative image capture and printmaking processes with a special section on 3D printing

8. Custom Textures

What would life be like without texture? It enhances the foods we eat, the clothes we wear, and the walls of our homes. Texture is the visual and tactile language of nature—it can be experienced through all of our senses and tells us the shape of things or their age and even can give us a historical reference to a time and place. Weaving texture into a photograph can convey an emotion and nostalgia that turns a snapshot into an iconic image. By making your own texture overlays you can tie together a body of work—almost like including an embedded watermark in a piece of finely crafted paper.

While there are textures available ...