CGBookcase vs Hero Patterns
CGBookcase
cgbookcase.comHero Patterns
heropatterns.comSide by side
| Figure | CGBookcase | Hero Patterns |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 1 |
| Spec score · Texture Libraries | 7.8 (#12) | 8.0 (#8) |
| Creator | Dorian Zgraggen says he runs the site in his spare time and creates free PBR textures and guides. | Steve Schoger says he draws and maintains Hero Patterns. |
Plans
In their own words
CGBookcase
CGBookcase is a free web resource for physically based rendering textures and material guidance. Its catalog lists 566 free textures with filters for 1K, 2K, 4K, 6K, and 8K resolutions. Textures use the CC0 1.0 license, allowing free use without credit, including commercial work. A listed Manhole Cover 16 material includes Base Color, Height, Mask, Metallic, DirectX Normal, and Roughness maps. The site also provides the open-source Texture Tiling Tool, which helps make photoscanned surfaces seamless and repeatable through surface-aware blending, clone patches, and lighting equalization at seams. Guides cover Blender and Unreal Engine setup. The Blender guidance notes that DirectX normal maps need green-channel inversion for Blender’s OpenGL format. Sample Rock and Bark downloads are offered in 4K and 8K, with file sizes from 118MB to 958MB. Patrons can access a Google Drive folder containing all textures.
Hero Patterns
Hero Patterns is a web collection of repeatable SVG background patterns for web projects. Select a pattern and adjust its foreground color, background color, and foreground opacity before using it. The selected design can be downloaded as an unstyled SVG, or you can copy generated CSS rules for applying it as a background. The assets are procedural, and the site links to the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license with commercial use listed as its scope. Hero Patterns has a free plan costing free, and the site says the collection will always be free. There is no free trial. Steve Schoger says he draws and maintains the collection and describes himself as a UI designer and illustrator from Kitchener, Ontario. He says updates will continue and directs visitors to Twitter and Dribbble for update news. Those channels are mentioned for updates, while no support channel or third-party integration is stated. The About section also links to Zondicons, described as free premium SVG icons for digital products.