It is well accepted that gloss variation deteriorates the print quality and there are various objective ways to measure this. Several studies now have shown that the coefficient of variation in the octave band passed printed gloss image has an excellent correlation with ratings by an expert panel using a magnitude estimation scaling method. The correlation improves when the gloss level is also taken into account beyond that of the COV. There is also evidence that the correlation would improve even more if the gloss spatial distribution could be better accounted for. We show that much (at least 80% and perhaps up to 90%) of the gloss distribution can be accounted for by the paper topography over a wide range of dimensions (scale). Recent work has supported the role that microroughness and multiple surface scattering play in the gloss distribution. This offers the promise of showing that even a greater amount of gloss variationcan be explained by topography.