Surface oxidation of titanium was performed by irradiation in air with a Nd:YAG (lambda = 1.064 mum). laser operating in pulsed mode. Different oxide coatings of apparently uniform colors were obtained by changing the accumulated fluence on the material. However, detailed view of the surfaces through an optical microscope showed micron-sized zones of different colors. Compositional studies performed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that the coatings were mainly composed of Ti2O and TiO. Micro-Raman spectroscopy of the small colored zones revealed the presence of Ti2O3 and TiO2 with different ratios characteristic of each color. These results evidence that exists some correlation in the coatings between composition and color, although only the compositional changes detected by Raman do not fully account for the observed differences in color. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.