ForMatter/Materials

Materials

119 entries across 14 categories. Each links through to processes that work it, applications that use it, and substitutes worth knowing.

metal · 37

14k Green Goldnew 58.5% gold, but the alloying load is almost entirely silver and the result tints distinctly green-yellow in daylight — the cast that gold-an
14k Rose Goldnew 58.5% gold pushed further pink by a higher copper fraction than rose 18k. The most-copper alloy that still legally counts as gold in the U.S
14k Yellow Goldnew 58.5% gold — the American fine-jewelry default, harder and cheaper than 18k and pale enough next to 22k that the difference is visible acros
18k Rose Goldnew 75% gold, but the silver is mostly gone and copper has taken its place — and the alloy turns pink. The same Au content as 18k yellow gold, t
18k White Gold (Palladium-Whitened)new 75% gold whitened with palladium instead of nickel — the European fine-jewelry default and the form that doesn't need rhodium plating to loo
18k Yellow Goldnew 75% gold, 12.5% silver, 12.5% copper — the workshop default of European fine-jewelry tradition. Hard enough to make a wedding band you'll we
22k Yellow Goldnew 91.7% gold — the standard of South Asian and Middle Eastern jewelry, where pure-yellow saturation matters more than ring durability. Soft en
Aluminum 2024new The high-strength aluminum alloy aircraft skins are made of — copper as the primary strengthener, magnesium as the secondary. Stronger than
Aluminum 5052new The aluminum sheet metal is made from when somebody is going to bend it — kitchen panels, fuel tanks, marine bulkheads, the formed edges on
Aluminum 6061 A common aluminum alloy. Bendable, weldable, anodizes well, won't rust. The everyman of metals — bike frames, drone parts, structural extrus
Aluminum 6063new The aluminum that window frames, curtain wall mullions, and most of the silver extruded shapes in the world are made of. Slightly weaker tha
Aluminum 7075 The strong-but-stiff aluminum — close to mild-steel strength at a third the weight. Used in aircraft skins, racing bicycle parts, drone fram
Aluminum A356 (Cast)new The cast-aluminum alloy almost every reasonable cast aluminum part is made of — engine cases, suspension knuckles, alloy wheels, structural
Argentium Silver 935new Sterling's quieter cousin — 93.5% silver, but the copper has been partially replaced with germanium, which forms a clear oxide skin on the s
Argentium Silver 960new Argentium pushed up the silver content as far as the alloy chemistry tolerates — 96.0% Ag — and kept the germanium that makes Argentium not
Bearing Bronze (C93200, SAE 660)new The bronze the world's plain bearings are cast from. Tin gives it strength, lead gives it self-lubrication where the bearing bore meets the
Cartridge Brass (C26000)new The brass that ammunition cases are made from, and the brass most yellow brass things are made from — door hardware, plumbing fittings, inst
Copper C11000 (Electrolytic Tough Pitch)newvoice The copper of wires, roof flashing, sculpture, and printed circuit boards. Soft enough to bend by hand in thin sheet, holds an electric curr
Fine Silver (999)new Silver as close to pure as a jeweler ever handles — 99.9% Ag with only trace impurities. Soft enough to dent against a fingernail, bright as
Magnesium AZ31Bnew The lightest structural metal in commercial use — about a third the density of steel and two-thirds the density of aluminum. Aluminum and zi
Niobium (Pure)new A refractory metal — high-melting, corrosion-proof, biocompatible — best known in jewelry because it accepts color the way titanium does, on
Palladium 950 (Pd950)new 95% palladium, the platinum-group sibling that's lighter and cheaper than platinum and naturally white without nickel. Hallmarked .950 in th
Platinum 900 / Iridium 100new Platinum stiffened by 10% iridium — the alloy stone-setters historically chose when they needed prongs that wouldn't move under decades of w
Platinum 950 (Pt950)new 95% platinum and 5% something-that-makes-it-workable — usually ruthenium, sometimes cobalt, sometimes iridium. The U.S. and European standar
Pure Gold (24 karat)voice Gold as it leaves the refinery — 99.9% Au, the form bullion bars and central-bank reserves are made of, and a form most jewelry isn't. Heavy
Stainless Steel 17-4 PHnew A stainless steel that hits the strength of medium-carbon tool steel — twice the tensile strength of 304 — by way of a heat treatment that d
Stainless Steel 304 The everyday stainless. Sinks, water bottles, kitchen tools, hardware in any environment that gets wet or salty. Won't rust under normal con
Stainless Steel 316Lnew The stainless-steel grade that handles salt water — 304's molybdenum-spiked, low-carbon sibling. Marine fittings, surgical implants, food-an
Steel 1018 (Mild Steel)newvoice The bread-and-butter steel. Soft enough to drill in a school shop with hand tools, strong enough for almost any structural prototype. Welds
Steel 4130 (Chromoly) Steel with a small amount of chromium and molybdenum mixed in. Stronger than mild steel, light enough that bicycles and small aircraft are m
Sterling Silver (925)new What "silver" almost always means in a jewelry case — 92.5% Ag, 7.5% Cu. The copper isn't there to cheapen it, it's there to make it usable:
Tantalum (Pure)new Tantalum sits between platinum and titanium in the cultural memory of jewelry — heavier, denser, and grayer than titanium, grayer and cheape
Titanium Grade 1 (CP-Ti)new The softest of the commercially-pure titanium grades — pure enough that it bends and forms without cracking, biocompatible enough for medica
Titanium Grade 2 (Commercially Pure) Pure titanium, soft enough to bend, light as aluminum, strong as steel, biocompatible for implants, untouched by seawater. The metal of high
Titanium Grade 5 (Ti-6Al-4V)new The titanium alloy that dominates the titanium-alloy tonnage worldwide — 6% aluminum, 4% vanadium, balance Ti. Twice as strong as commercial
Titanium Grade 9 (Ti-3Al-2.5V) Titanium with small additions of aluminum and vanadium — stronger than commercially pure titanium, still weldable, the standard for premium
Tungsten (Pure / Tungsten Carbide)new Tungsten — the densest engineering metal in common use, 70% heavier than lead — and tungsten carbide, the ceramic-metal composite the jewelr

gemstone · 27

stone · 3

polymer · 15

paint · 2

wood · 5

glass · 2

ceramic · 3

textile · 5

composite · 2

biomaterial · 8

paper · 3

smart · 5

other · 2

Concordance

House vocabulary — terms ForMatter uses with intent.

anisotropic: Direction-dependent. Wood reads differently along the grain than across it; rolled steel is stiffer along the rolling direction. The Principled-BSDF anisotropic input rotates the highlight to match.
application: What the thing IS, in the world. The third entity, peer of material and process. A water bottle, a chair, an extruded-aluminum profile.
BRDF: Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function. The math behind how a surface returns light for any incoming and outgoing direction. The PBR model is a parameterized BRDF.
channeled: A voice block written within a dead author's philosophy, marked and cited. Distinct from a verbatim quote. Roland Barthes channeled on PMMA reads like Barthes; the citation attributes the lineage.
choral fugue: ForMatter's register. Subject stated plainly (freshman tier), answered in technical and sensorial registers, countersubjects from linked processes and applications, citations as final stretto. Voice blocks where canon attaches.
clearcoat: A second specular layer over the base surface. Glossy plastics and lacquered woods get a clearcoat term in the PBR table. IOR 1.5 by default.
compatibility (process): Each process entry lists which materials it can work. The cross-ref renders as sphere pills so the gallery feeling extends inward.
confidence: Each entry tagged high / medium / low. A senior's low-confidence-with-three-citations beats a freshman's high-confidence-with-none. The label is a contract with the reader, not a brag.
crystalline (finish): A faceted-surface read — gemstones, glassy minerals, ice. Drives PBR defaults: IOR 2.42 (diamond), transmission 1.0, low roughness.
derive_pbr(): The build's single source of truth — sphere palette + finish enum → Principled-BSDF starter values. One function feeds the entry-page table, the per-host snippets, the glTF export, and the Three.js Live Preview.
freshman / senior register: Two registers in every entry — the plain freshman description and the technical / sensorial one. Same database, two readers, no extra subscription.
glTF: GL Transmission Format — the open 3D-asset standard every modern app reads. ForMatter emits a .gltf material doc per material. Open standard, designer-friendly handoff.
IOR: Index of Refraction. How much light bends entering the surface. Air 1.0, water 1.33, glass 1.5, diamond 2.42. Drives transmission and the specular term.
iridescent (finish): Hue-shifted accent over base. Anodized titanium and niobium, opal, paraíba. Drives PBR defaults: medium metalness, sheen, clearcoat.
lite-PBR: ForMatter's PBR approach — Principled-BSDF starter values per entry, no measured BRDFs, no commercial assets. Honest reasonable defaults from the finish enum, per-entry numeric overrides where you have a real reason.
Live Preview: The Three.js shader ball that replaces the static CSS sphere on entry pages. Same derive_pbr() values, real-time lit, draggable. Optional — toggle in Preferences.
material: What the thing is MADE OF. The first entity. Aluminum 6061, white oak, soda-lime glass.
metallic (finish): Specular highlight, deep shadow rim. Drives PBR defaults: metalness 1, low roughness, IOR 1.45. Polished steel, gold, copper.
PBR: Physically-Based Rendering. The shading model every modern 3D app uses, parameterized by metallic / roughness / IOR / transmission / clearcoat / sheen. ForMatter publishes starter values for every material entry.
Principled BSDF: Blender's name for the consolidated PBR shader. Most other apps ship the same shader under different names (Standard Surface, ShaderGraph, Substance). One node, every output.
process: How the material is MADE INTO the thing. The second entity. Cast, machined, kerf-bent, anodized, planished, granulated. Process is a peer of material, not a footnote.
quote: A voice block carrying a verbatim quotation from a living author, with citation. Distinct from a channeled block. Living = quote only; the rule is enforced at the schema layer.
roughness: Microsurface scatter. 0 is mirror-smooth; 1 is fully diffuse. Most real surfaces sit between 0.2 and 0.8.
sphere proxy: ForMatter's visible-character stand-in for every material. CSS-gradient driven by the entry's palette and finish, not a baked render. Honest about being a proxy, scales to six hundred entries cheaply, tweakable in one place.
substitute: A peer material that could fill a similar role. Cross-references render as sphere pills inside an entry — the gallery feeling extends inward.
transmission: How much light passes through. 1 is fully transparent; 0 is opaque. Glass, gemstones, clear plastics carry transmission.
voice block: A versal block where a real authored voice attaches to the material or process. Schema-tagged with status (living / dead) and mode (quote / channeled). Citations always.
woodgrain (finish): Directional sheen with grain ring. Drives PBR defaults: anisotropic 0.6, medium roughness, no metalness. Every wood entry.

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ForMatter

Materials and processes for people who design and make things.

A local-first library of materials, processes, and applications, equal weight, citable everywhere. Part of the renato.design ecosystem — sibling of Plenum, Specimen, Ingenue, gesture, graf, and the Renato Rhino plug-ins. Form and matter, inseparable.

Why this exists

Half of teaching materials is teaching how the material is made into the thing. The standard subscription library was always light on that half. The wedge here isn't better samples or a prettier interface — it's treating Process as a peer entity, not a footnote.

Rules of the house

Citations or it didn't happen. Every property number, every claim, every borrowed register has a traceable source.
Living authors are quoted only. Verbatim or not at all.
Dead authors may be channeled within their philosophy — marked, cited, never impersonated.
Confidence labeled honestly. A senior's low-confidence-with-three-citations beats a freshman's high-confidence-with-none.
Local-first. Works offline, no login, no subscription.

Sister apps

Ingenue — five voices argue about what to build from electronic parts. Where ForMatter teaches what the thing is made of, Ingenue proposes what the thing could be.
Plenum — vehicle codes through the camera, doo-wop register.
Specimen — iOS field-collection for design students.
renato.design — the rest.

Sources

Conway's Material World on raw materials, Lefteri's Making It on processes, Untracht and McCreight on metalsmithing, USDA Forest Products Lab on woods, GIA on gemstones, Schott / CoorsTek / Toray / Owens Corning datasheets, MakeItFrom for verifiable property numbers, ASM Handbook, ISO standards. Voice blocks: Barthes, Yanagi, Benjamin channeled within their philosophy; Lefteri verbatim. All cited.

v0.5 — 2026-04-27 · Phil Renato · renato.design · MIT-licensed code, CC BY-NC research content

Preferences

Local to this browser. No cloud, no account, no telemetry.

Live Preview on entry pages Three.js shader ball replacing the static sphere. Disable on slower hardware or to keep entry pages text-only.

UI scale Browser-style zoom. Useful for classroom projection or close work.

Sphere density How many material spheres fit per row on the landing grid. Smaller spheres pack more across the page; larger ones fewer. Adapts to desktop and phone.

more fewer

Default confidence filter Search dropdown defaults to this level when the page loads.

Stored in localStorage under formatter:prefs.

Materials

metal · 37

gemstone · 27

stone · 3

polymer · 15

paint · 2

wood · 5

glass · 2

ceramic · 3

textile · 5

composite · 2

biomaterial · 8

paper · 3

smart · 5

other · 2

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Materials

Processes

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Concordance

ForMatter

Why this exists

Rules of the house

Sister apps

Sources

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