Powder based additive manufacturing production technologies still face important issues concerning the surface state of produced parts. Regardless of base material nature, polymer or metals, the parts present surfaces that do not match customers’ expectations. Until now, the main parameters used for determining the surface state of such parts are based on profile height parameters like the arithmetic surface roughness Ra. It is legitimate to call the significance of profile roughness into question, especially when we aim at characterizing a three dimensional surface. During this talk, a novel characterization method is used that enables the computation of areal surface parameters in a rapid and reproducible way. This method is a fundamentally new way of investigating the surface of polymeric SLS parts and detecting the slightest changes in surface morphology. A DOE with different scanning parameters is implemented to analyse the surface roughness and texture of PA12 parts. The outcome of this experiment is subsequently implemented in day-to-day business of a service bureau in order to improve the haptics of conventional SLS parts.