# Masked lattice tile — texture as an asset, not a filter

Learned 2026-08-27 from Resend's 80×80 app-icon tile (`#status-icon`).

- **It ships as SVG, in a light and a dark cut**, swapped by
  `hidden dark:block`, with `saturate-150` on the element. Not a CSS
  background, not a noise filter.
- **The texture is geometry under a mask**: a black `rect rx="25"`, a gradient
  overlay at `fill-opacity .3`, then a lattice of 13px squares — most stroked
  `#fff` at `stroke-opacity .07`, a few filled `#fff` at `fill-opacity .1` —
  clipped by a gradient mask so the grid fades across the tile. A 36×36 glyph
  sits on top.
- **Copy the asset.** Rebuilding a masked lattice in CSS costs more and
  measures worse; the tile is 5.9KB of SVG. This is the transplant case from
  SKILL.md step 1.