Abstract: This invention is a surface inspection system including a light source having a sharp edge between dark and bright and a video camera imaging this edge reflected from the surface. The light intensity of the light source is controlled using a light intensity sensor. An optical system focusses an image of the light source at the video camera with sufficient depth of focus to include the surface to be inspected. The exposure duration is set to prevent blurring if the surface to be inspected is moving. A surface quality computation apparatus computes at least one measure of surface quality, such as gloss, distinctness of reflected image and orange peel of the surface, from the video image signal. This surface quality computation apparatus preferably includes a frame grabber and a general purpose digital computer. Gloss is computed by determination of the maximum and minimum brightness slopes of the video image signal of the edge.