Roughness and smoothness evaluation of fabrics using images in the online shopping scenario

Purpose This study aims to identify the physical properties consumers consider important when evaluating fabric roughness and smoothness. Two experiments were conducted to examine the effects of magnification ratios in hypothetical brick–and–mortar businesses and online shopping scenarios. Design/methodology/approach About 60 engineering students (30 men and 30 women) participated in two experiments. In the brick-and-mortar scenario, eight actual fabrics were evaluated for roughness and smoothness. In the online shopping scenario, images of each fabric photographed at nine different distances were evaluated. The relationship between fabric roughness and smoothness and the measured luminance properties of the images was analyzed to determine important physical properties influencing consumer perception. Findings The results reveal that maximum luminance and luminance contrast are critical factors in evaluating fabric roughness and smoothness from images. Additionally, the relationship between luminance contrast and spatial frequency properties indicates that repetitive patterns on fabric surfaces do not hinder the visual evaluation of texture. Visual–tactile evaluation using real fabrics has a higher optimal magnification than visual evaluation alone. This suggests that tactile evaluation enhances image presentation magnification requirements. Originality/value This study highlights that converting the correlation between the roughness and smoothness of real fabrics and their observed texture in surface images into observation or photographic distances enables accurate online evaluation. This approach could help consumers achieve texture assessments comparable to those in brick–and–mortar settings across various devices and visual environments.