An attempt is made to address the basic physical properties of printed and unprinted paper surfaces by using spectroscopic ellipsometry in the range 300-900 nm to determine the effective complex-valued refractive index . Some simulations to address the effect of structural properties have also been done and a qualitative comparison with some other methods, in particular Brewster angle measurements, has been made. Unprinted paper and paper printed in different colors have been studied. The measured absorption properties matched the colors of the used inks well. The effects of roughness on the determined spectra of are discussed. Simulations show that compared to other methods, like Brewster-angle reflectometry, spectroscopic ellipsometry provides a more accurate value of , especially in wavelength regions were the color pigments show absorption. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.