How far do texture tags get?
Does asking for metal or gloss change the surface?
Texture is the weakest axis measured here. Four matte tags came out identical to the default, so there was nothing to compare and they are not published.
The gloss family fares little better — one of four. Which works and which does not is the content here.
Every cut below shares one seed, one base prompt and one sampler setting, and differs only by the tag marked in amber.
What each cut shows
metallic- No change — the default fabric, unchanged.
chrome- Also nothing; no metal reflection appears.
iridescent- The one that works: the garment turns holographic and picks up a sheen.
pearlescent- The fabric stays the same, but the earrings turn into round pearls and the hair grows longer, falling over one shoulder.
How these were made
Shared prompt
masterpiece, best quality, amazing quality, very awa, 1girl, solo, mature female, adult woman, short black hair, brown eyes, upper body, straight-on, plain grey background, <tag slot>
Tap a tag to carry it over to the builder
Negative prompt
nsfw, nude, topless, bikini, swimsuit, lingerie, underwear, cleavage, suggestive, school uniform, pleated skirt, child, loli, teenage, bad quality, worst quality, worst detail, censor, jpeg artifacts, watermark, signature, text, extra limbs, bad hands, bad anatomy
Model
rinFlanimeIllustrious_v30 · euler_ancestral/normal · steps 28 · CFG 5 · 896×1152 · seed 777043
Takeaway
In this set only iridescent actually changed the surface of the garment. metallic and chrome left the fabric as it was, and pearlescent turned the earrings into pearls instead of touching the fabric. If you need a silvery gloss, iridescent was the only one of the four that moved that way.
How far this result reaches
This concerns clothing. Skin-texture tags fall outside what this site illustrates and were not tested.
Measured on a single Stable Diffusion family checkpoint. The same tags can behave differently on NovelAI, Midjourney or another checkpoint. This is a reference point, not a verdict.