Surface quality plays an important role in texture measurements of the materials with high linear absorption coefficient. In this article, three different surface preparation methods were used and the effects of surface quality on texture measurements were quantitatively investigated. A bulk annealed tantalum was selected as a model material, whose surface was subjected to grinding, electropolishing and etching, respectively. In the case of the three surface states, macrotexture analyses were performed on an X-ray diffraction instrument and features of the surfaces were examined by optical microscope and surface profiler. Comparisons were made based on matching the percentages of two primary textures ( {1 0 0}< uvw > and {1 1 1}< uvw >) obtained by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and electron back-scattering diffraction (EBSD) methods. It was revealed that states of sample surface, like roughness and damaged region caused by grinding, have a significant impact on texture results. Electropolishing was proved to be suitable for metals with high linear absorption coefficient for XRD texture measurements. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.