This seamless 8K PBR texture captures the intricate details of a rough cardboard surface, showcasing the natural composition and tactile characteristics of untreated cardboard material. The base form reveals a subtly uneven planar sheet with a fibrous, grainy pattern, highlighting the interwoven pulp fibers that compose the substrate. These fibers create a fine network of elongated strands and occasional thicker fiber bundles, producing an organic, non-uniform texture that is typical of natural cardboard. The surface exhibits moderate porosity with slight depressions and raised fiber clusters, reflecting the intrinsic roughness and minor surface irregularities found in recycled or uncoated cardboard sheets.
The cardboard substrate is primarily composed of compressed cellulose pulp fibers, which provide mechanical strength and a distinct fibrous appearance. Adhesives and binders used in cardboard manufacturing contribute to the cohesion of these fibers but remain visually subtle, preserving the raw, unpolished finish. The color palette is dominated by earthy brown tones, ranging from light tan to deeper beige hues, resulting from natural lignin and fiber pigments rather than artificial dyes. This contributes to the authentic, neutral base color that is accurately represented in the BaseColor (Albedo) map. Variations in fiber density and orientation influence the Normal and Height maps, producing realistic light interaction and depth effects across the surface.
The roughness channel emphasizes the uneven matte finish intrinsic to the cardboard material, capturing the contrast between coarse fiber strands and flatter pulp regions, while the Metallic map remains neutral, as cardboard contains no metallic components. Ambient Occlusion enhances the perception of depth within fiber overlaps and micro-crevices, enriching the visual complexity of the texture. The Height (Displacement) map adds subtle relief, enabling pronounced parallax effects and realistic shading in 3D environments. This high-resolution 8K texture is optimized for seamless tiling, ensuring consistent detail when applied on large surfaces in Blender, Unreal Engine, or Unity, supporting both real-time applications and high-quality offline rendering workflows.
For optimal integration, it is advisable to adjust the UV scale to match the desired cardboard sheet size and to fine-tune roughness values based on lighting conditions—reducing roughness slightly can simulate light wear or coating, while increasing it enhances the raw, fibrous feel. Blending the height and normal maps can further refine surface detail, enhancing realism in close-up views or interactive scenes. This texture provides an accurate, versatile representation of natural cardboard surfaces, suitable for packaging design, product visualization, and environmental texturing requiring authentic material fidelity.
How to Use These Seamless PBR Textures in Blender
This guide shows how to connect a full PBR texture set to Principled BSDF in Blender (Cycles or Eevee). Works with any of our seamless textures free download, including PBR PNG materials for Blender / Unreal / Unity.
What’s inside the download
*_albedo.png — Base Color (sRGB)*_normal.png — Normal map (Non-Color)*_roughness.png — Roughness (Non-Color)*_metallic.png — Metallic (Non-Color)*_ao.png — Ambient Occlusion (Non-Color)*_height.png — Height / Displacement (Non-Color)*_ORM.png — Packed map (R=AO, G=Roughness, B=Metallic, Non-Color)
Quick start (Node Wrangler, 30 seconds)
- Enable the addon: Edit → Preferences → Add-ons → Node Wrangler.
- Create a material and select the Principled BSDF node.
- Press Ctrl + Shift + T and select the maps
albedo, normal, roughness, metallic (skip height and ORM for now) → Open.
The addon wires Base Color, Normal (with a Normal Map node), Roughness, and Metallic automatically.
- Add AO and Height using the “Manual wiring” steps below (5 and 6).
Manual wiring (full control)
- Create a material (Material Properties → New) and open the Shader Editor.
- Add an Image Texture node for each map. Set Color Space:
- Albedo → sRGB
- AO, Roughness, Metallic, Normal, Height, ORM → Non-Color
- Connect to Principled BSDF:
albedo → Base Colorroughness → Roughnessmetallic → Metallic (for wood this often stays near 0)normal → Normal Map node (Type: Tangent Space) → Normal of Principled.
If details look “inverted”, enable Invert Y on the Normal Map node.
- Ambient Occlusion (AO):
- Add a MixRGB (or Mix Color) node in mode Multiply.
- Input A =
albedo, Input B = ao, Factor = 1.0.
- Output of Mix → Base Color of Principled (replaces the direct albedo connection).
- Height / Displacement:
Cycles — true displacement
- Material Properties → Settings → Displacement: Displacement and Bump.
- Add a Displacement node: connect
height → Height, set Midlevel = 0.5, Scale = 0.02–0.08 (tune to taste).
- Output of Displacement → Material Output → Displacement.
- Add geometry density (e.g., Subdivision Surface) so displacement has polygons to work with.
Eevee (or lightweight Cycles) — bump only
- Add a Bump node:
height → Height.
- Set Strength = 0.2–0.5, Distance = 0.05–0.1, and connect Normal output to Principled’s Normal.
Using the packed ORM texture (optional)
Instead of separate AO/Roughness/Metallic maps you can use the single *_ORM.png:
- Add one Image Texture (Non-Color) → Separate RGB (or Separate Color).
- R (red) → AO (use it in the Multiply node with albedo as above).
- G (green) → Roughness of Principled.
- B (blue) → Metallic of Principled.
UVs & seamless tiling
- These textures are seamless. If your mesh has no UVs, go to UV Editing → Smart UV Project.
- For scale/repeat, add Texture Coordinate (UV) → Mapping and plug it into all texture nodes.
Increase Mapping → Scale (e.g., 2/2/2) to tile more densely.
Recommended starter values
- Normal Map Strength: 0.5–1.0
- Bump Strength: ~0.3
- Displacement Scale (Cycles): ~0.03
Common pitfalls
- Wrong Color Space (normals/roughness/etc. must be Non-Color).
- “Inverted” details → enable Invert Y on the Normal Map node.
- Over-strong relief → lower Displacement Scale or Bump Strength.
Example: Download Wood Textures and instantly apply parquet or rustic planks inside Blender for architectural visualization.
To add the downloaded texture, go to Add — Texture — Image Texture.
Add a node and click the Open button.
Select the required texture on your hard drive and connect Color to Base Color.
