The feeling of softness and smoothness of paper tissue products is an important performance factor in the market place. In a series of panel tests, the relationship between instrumental measurements and perceived softness and smoothness was investigated. Samples of tissue base paper – napkin and toilet paper – were evaluated for surface roughness. The samples were placed on a hard, smooth glass substrate and the respondents used one finger to stroke along the sample surface. Instrumental measurement and characterization were performed using differentinstruments: Emtec TSA and Lena Softness Tester. The results divide the base paper material into product groups, but general mathematical relationships could be found between the test panel and the measurements when normalized in different ways. Measurements using the Lena produced the best correlation with the panel ratings because its principle resembled the method of the test panel most closely. However, a general relationship usingmaterial properties was shown to produce as good an estimator for the surface roughness as the results obtained with the Lena. This relationship consisted of the ratio between the plasticity and the elasticity of the tissue paper (in-plane properties), normalized for thickness. This suggests that those three material properties are fundamental to the perception of surface roughness as evaluated in this study. Using a trained haptic panel to evaluate test samples of similar grammage with variations in furnish and machine operation settings generated a good correlation to the TSA measurement (r=0.9). The panel was more susceptible to variation in furnish than variation in peak pressure, and this was particularly evident for samples evaluated on the Yankee side.