Abstract In view of the universal applicability of color information index and the ability of spectrum index to measure small roughness, this paper studies the influence of machined surface texture on roughness machine-vision measurement. Based on the micro-topography of different types of texture surface, the correlations between the average color difference, five typical spectral indices and the surface roughness parameters of two types of texture representative workpiece milling and grinding are focused on in the discussion. On this basis, the influences of the angle of light source and camera relative to the surface normal of the sample and the sample surface texture direction on roughness measurement are further discussed, and the reasons for the difference in index to characterize different process roughness are analyzed from the mechanism. The experimental results show that the different surface textures have different effects on light scattering, which in turn affects the sensitivity of the index to the roughness parameters.