With the recent progress of broadband networks, accurate appearance reproduction across various environments is required for objects in various applications such as e-commerce, the designing process, and telemedicine. Multispectral imaging techniques are expected to perform cross-environment color reproduction for objects. However, color is just one attribute for the appearance of objects. Other attributes such as glossiness, graininess, and translucency should be also considered for practical cross-environment appearance reproduction. In this review, a framework for appearance reproduction is introduced with relation to computer graphics, computer vision, and image processing techniques. The importance of the multispectral imaging technique is also recognized again in this framework. Case studies are introduced based on the examples we have performed in our practical applications. (C) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.