The paper established a new method for fast measurement and characterizing of sub-visible dirt of recycled paper which is too small to be seen with naked eye. This method provided a new way for the evaluation of recycled paper that is hard to be characterized by the conventional method. Two effective thresholding algorithms HA and SDA were compared and their applicable conditions were discussed. Results showed that the HA could be used for un-printed paper while SDA is suited for recycled papers. The gloss of paper samples was measured and the relation between gloss and sub-visible dirt was investigated. The significant effect of this method for characterizing and comparing paper was exhibited. The experiment results indicated that sub-visible dirt measuring method could be a complementariness of the conventional methods.