The process of wastepaper recycling is essentially one of removing contaminants from the usable fiber. However, at present there are no analytical techniques to quantitatively determine these contaminants. Thus, the determination of the efficiency of existing recycling equipment and the design of new equipment are hindered. This work has shown that the application of modern automatic image analysis techniques provides an ideal tool for over coming this fundamental problem. Techniques are described for the quantitative analysis of ink particles and stickies. Applications of these techniques for the determination of ink removal efficiency and stickie removal efficiency of individual equipment units, total mill systems, and in the development of new equipment are given. It is suggested that in the future, automatic image analysis could become a standard fundamental analytical tool for the research laboratory, quality control, and as an on-line monitoring system on the paper machine. -- AATA