Image embossing

Image embossing is a computer graphics technique in which each pixel of an image is replaced either by a highlight or a shadow, depending on light/dark boundaries on the original image. Low contrast areas are replaced by a gray background. The filtered image will represent the rate of color change at each location of the original image. Applying an embossing filter to an image often results in an image resembling a paper or metal embossing of the original image, hence the name.