ABSTRACT.Understanding the tactile feel of paper, nonwoven, and woven products requires a valid and reliable sensory evaluation method which discriminates and describes handfeel properties. The Handfeel Spectrum Descriptive Analysis method separates the sensory tactile properties of paper and fabrics into clearly defined characteristics that are based on sound physical properties. The benefit of using a trained descriptive sensory panel is that resulting analytical sensory data allow full documentation of a sample's sensory tactile properties that can be related to consumer responses and instrumental physical tests. This benefit derives from strict protocols for manipulation and the use of precisely defined terms to discriminate and describe the qualitative properties (characteristics) and their relative intensities (strength) in each product. This paper discusses in detail the protocols for (1) sample preparation, presentation, and handling during evaluation, (2) the definition and scale range for each sensory attribute/characteristic and (3) the application of these data to address business and technical situations with consumer products.