What is a "flat" style?

[vasa1]

I'm coming across the phrase "flat style" in the context of themes and their components but would appreciate someone explaining what defines a flat style.

[vasa1]

Nice example here: http://www.jyloo.com/images/blog/but...uttonStyle.png

[cortman]

I've been on a bit of a "flat theme" kick for a while- I believe it means no 3D-like gradients, no shadowing, etc. Similar to the Windows 8 ex-Metro interface.

[vasa1]

My interest is to know if a flat style will consume fewer resources, however marginally, than other styles.
I've been turning off shadows (box and text) and gradients wherever I can for quite a while.

[cortman]

I very much doubt it consumes fewer resources.
I just like the look (for a change). I was going to link my gnome-shell/gtk theme but I forget what it's called now.

[vasa1]

I very much doubt it consumes fewer resources. ...

Here's just one link:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3225589
If you google for "box text shadow cpu usage" you'll find more.

[vasa1]

And here's a link to what a Midori (browser) dev suggested a while ago:

Scrolling on website xyz is very slow

Go to Tools > Extensions
Enable 'User Addons' if it's not yet enabled
Create a text file .local/share/midori/styles/scrollfix.user.css
Put this into the file: * {-webkit-box-shadow: none !important;}