This seamless 8K PBR texture showcases the complex materiality of natural cardboard, emphasizing the intricate cardboard fiber network combined with distinct cardboard fluting and layered structural details. Cardboard is fundamentally composed of cellulose fibers derived from wood pulp, bonded together with mild adhesives to form a lightweight yet sturdy substrate. The texture captures the characteristic sandwich-like geometry of cardboard layers: flat outer linerboards enclosing corrugated fluting that creates the signature ridged pattern. This corrugated form not only contributes to the material's mechanical strength but also generates pronounced surface undulations and shadows, which are accurately represented in the height and normal maps.
The surface exhibits subtle natural variations in color and grain, reflecting the unbleached pulp fiber’s earthy beige tones and occasional flecks of raw fiber. These organic colorations translate to the BaseColor channel, conveying a warm, muted palette without artificial pigments. The roughness map reflects a moderately coarse finish, typical of untreated cardboard, with uneven fiber density and minor surface porosity that affects light diffusion. The metallic channel remains neutral, as cardboard lacks metallic elements, while the ambient occlusion map accentuates crevices between fluted layers and fiber clusters, enhancing depth perception in 3D renders.
In terms of form, the texture replicates the laminated architecture of cardboard, where multiple flat sheets are glued to the corrugated core, creating visible layering lines and subtle edge wear. The fibrous structure is detailed enough to reveal individual pulp strands woven into the paper sheets, contributing to a tactile surface quality. This texture is optimized for use in advanced rendering environments such as Blender, Unreal Engine, and Unity, supporting high-fidelity material workflows with detailed normal, height, and roughness maps. The 8K resolution ensures crisp details even at close camera distances, preserving the authenticity of cardboard’s layered ridges and grain patterns.
For practical implementation, it is advisable to carefully adjust the UV scale to maintain realistic proportions of the fluting ridges relative to model size. Tuning the roughness map can simulate different cardboard finishes, from slightly glossy coated cartons to raw, matte packaging surfaces. Combining height and normal maps with subtle parallax occlusion can enhance the perceived depth of the corrugated structure without excessive geometry. This texture delivers a versatile and physically accurate representation of cardboard surfaces suitable for product visualization, packaging design, and environment modeling where detailed fibrous materiality is required.
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.
