The multitude of areas in which diffuse refl ect ance spectroscopy can b e applied has been described in sever al books and reviews and ra nges fr om color measurements of t extiles, pharmaceuticals, building materials, p aper and pulp materi als et c., to adsorption studies and other basic investigations in physical, inorganic and organic chemistry.The maj or area of application is still the measurement of color which has become indispensible in the quality control of colored products, dyes and pigments. Color m atching practices a nd t echni ques with sophisticated instrumentation which can be fully computerized as well as the use of simpler filter instruments for quality contr ol ar e m entioned.Tran sfera bility of refl ect an ce d at a i.e., color coordinat es, depends on the quality of standa rds particularly when absolute measurements are desired . The difficulty of fi nding suitable "white standards" with good refl ection properties at low UV and with a good long t erm stability is discussed . Similar arguments hold for spher e coatin g m a t eri als. For t he measurement of flu orescing surfaces suitable st andards are lacking which renders transfer of su ch data almost impossible.The usefulness of diffuse r efl ectance t echniques to study adsorption phenomen a on sm all particle a dsorbents is demonstrated with a malachit e green-o-carboxylic acid lactone syst em studied b y Kortum . This or similar syst ems could be ad opted t o the m easurement of r elative surface areas on certain chromatographic adsorbents yielding m ore realistic values than the BET-method .The most r ecent area of applica tion has been in the fiel d of chromatograph y for the in situ evaluation of chromatographic zones in fl a t-bed chromatography, electrophoresis and isoelectric focusing.In chromatography, standardization is less problematic since usu ally r elative measurements ar e suffi cient . On the other hand one has t o find suitable calibration procedures . The use of the Kub elka-Munk function is often questionable since we are usually n ot dealing with layers of infinite thickness and below 300 nm the conventional adsorbents such as silica gel, alumina or cellulose are strongly absorbing. Experiences with a n ew function combining the laws of Kub elka-Munk a nd Lambert-Beer are therefore presented .The problem is also t o find calibration t ec hniques which account for chromat ogra phic paramet ers. Until recentl y it was believed that a quantitative evaluation of chromatogra ms required a number of reference zones t o b e developed on the same chrom at ogra m . In our experience this is n o longer true. A novel calibration technique which utilizes the concept of transferable calibra tion factors is discussed. \¥ ith this approach a quantitative evaluation of a chromatogram with only one r eference spot is possible. H ere again scanning and da t a acquisition can be fully automated. The application of proper calibration procedures ~o differential reflectance techniques and the measurement of mult i-component systems I...