The influence of the thickness of fcc metals electrodeposited on an indifferent substrate on the formation of a preferred orientation of the crystalline grains has been investigated. Following the atomistic theory of nucleation, the work of formation of both mono- and poly-layered critical nuclei oriented according to the most important symmetry axes of the fcc lattice was evaluated. It resulted that the initial texture axis of fcc metals is always the <111> axis which does not depend on the value of the crystallization overvoltage and of the energy of interaction between the nucleus and the substrate. The theoretical results on the initial texture are in agreement with the experimental findings on Cu and Ni electrodeposits. Moreover, by increasing the thickness of the latter electrodeposits, they presented a typical growth texture with <110> and <100> texture axis, respectively. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.