Color change is one of the important side effects of textile treatments to consider. This article evaluates the effect of the particle size of commonly used finishing chemicals (fluorocarbon resins and dimethyloldihydroxylethylene urea reagents) on color assessment by studying instrumental analyses, and it is reported that the smaller the particle size is, the higher the surface reflectance is, and the less the color change can be achieved. On the other hand, the effect of the particle size is not significant on color assessment after abrading cycles. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.