This article proposes to analyze the relation between gloss and roughness of surfaces of polypropylene samples abraded at different magnitudes. Experiments consist of mechanical polishing at different grades, roughness profiles measurement, and specular light reflectometry with three incidence angles of resulting surfaces. About 100 roughness parameters were considered in this investigation and an original statistical methodology combining the conventional one-way ANOVA to the recent and powerful Computer Based Bootstrap Method (CBBM) is presented to select which of them is the most relevant, first, to characterize the polypropylene surfaces abraded at different magnitude and, second, to model the physical interaction of these abraded surfaces with a white light beam. The statistical treatment of the experimental results of this investigation shows that the fractal dimension is the most relevant roughness parameter in the two cases. As far as the optical properties are concerned, it is shown that the fractal dimension of an abraded surface is closely related to the local curvature radii of peaks which are known to play a major role in physical interactions with a white light beam. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 56:103-117, 2016. (c) 2015 Society of Plastics Engineers