Pollution from textile mills is a problem of formidable dimensions and color removal is the most perplexing problem facing environmental engineers designing appropriate treatment facilities for textile wastewaters. The CIE colorimetric system has been used in this study to measure the color in the treatment of disperse-red-60 dye wastewater using different adsorbents. The color removal is determined by using the CIE 1976 L*a*b* (CIELAB) color difference equation. The effect of contact time and dosage on color and color removal has been investigated for various adsorbents, namely, powdered activated carbon, granular activated carbon, activated alumina, molecular sieves and diatomite.