Line thicknesses and intensities, texture, color and tone in  materials and graphics.

1. Line Thicknesses and Intensities

  • Thickness (weight):
    • Thin lines → convey delicacy, precision, or secondary information.
    • Thick lines → emphasize boundaries, hierarchy, or strong separations.
  • Intensity (darkness or sharpness):
    • High intensity (bold, dark) → attracts attention, highlights key features.
    • Low intensity (faint, light) → background details, less emphasis.

👉 Used in: architectural drawings, engineering diagrams, urban planning maps, and infographics to create hierarchy and clarity.

Photo by Alexander Grey on Pexels.com

2. Texture

  • Physical texture (materials): tactile qualities (smooth, rough, glossy, matte) that affect how light interacts with a surface.
  • Graphical texture: use of patterns, hatching, stippling, or gradients to differentiate areas, materials, or zones in visual representation.
  • Communicates material identity (e.g., brick, concrete, wood) and adds depth and realism.

3. Color

  • Hue (type of color): distinguishes categories (e.g., land use types on a map).
  • Saturation (vividness): conveys importance or mood (bright for active, muted for subdued).
  • Value (lightness/darkness): helps create contrast, depth, and readability.
  • Colors also carry psychological and cultural meanings (e.g., green for nature, red for urgency).

4. Tone

  • Refers to the gradation of lightness and darkness of a color or grayscale element.
  • Creates visual hierarchy, depth, and spatial understanding.
  • Softer tones suggest background or distance; stronger tones suggest foreground or focus.

✅ In combination:

  • Line + Tone → clarity in drawings.
  • Texture + Color → material representation.
  • Intensity + Thickness → graphic hierarchy.
  • Tone + Color → atmosphere, emphasis, depth.