The Tencel fabrics were treated by the atmospheric pressure plasma with air for different length of time and dyed with the CJ. Reactive Black 5 at 1%, 5% and 10% o.m.f. The effect of the prolonged plasma treatment time was characterized by both the weight loss and the whiteness index analyses, which implied that with the increase of the plasma treatment time, the treated fabrics were lighter and yellower than the untreated ones. The contact angle decreased dramatically from 139 to instantly spread. The results of SEM showed that, with the prolonged treatment time, more significant crater-like surface morphology on the fiber of Tencel samples was formed. Compared with untreated samples, the values of dye bath exhaustion and total fixation effect were higher. But they did not increase with the prolonged plasma treatment time. With the prolonged storage time after the plasma treatment, the result to ageing effect indicated that the values of dye bath exhaustion and total fixation effect reduced. The Integ values for characterizing the coloring effect were evaluated by the CIE system of color measurement. In most cases, the Integ values reached the highest ones when the plasma treatment time was 10 or 20 min. When the concentration of the dye bath was low (at 1% o.m.f.), the longer plasma treatment time was, the higher the Integ value was. However, if the fabrics after plasma treatment were stored for 21 days, the longer plasma treatment time did not cause the larger Integ value. When the concentration was 1%, the Integ value increased with the weight loss increasing, which was different from the values of fabrics with 5% and 10% concentration. If the dyeing concentration was low, the fixation had a more significant effect on the color fastness to wet rubbing; in contrast, if the dyeing concentration was high, the surface roughness had a more important effect on it. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.