Abstract: To verify the inspection performance of various appearance quality inspection apparatuses for cigarette packets, an evaluation method for the imaging quality of the interested inspection apparatuses was established. An off-line appearance inspection system was configured to create different environments of image formation, methods for quantifying the illumination uniformity and imaging distortion rate of the system were established, the whiteness and checkerboard standard blocks were fabricated as well. A standard cigarette packet sample with appearance defects was designed and tested in different environments of image formation. The effects of illumination uniformity, imaging distortion rate, imaging clarity, and image resolution on the defect recognition rate were investigated. The results showed that the imaging distortion rate did not affect defect recognition rate significantly, however the illumination uniformity, imaging clarity, and image resolution were positively correlated with the defect recognition rate. To ensure detection efficiency and recognition accuracy, the recommended thresholds of the system are illumination uniformity coefficient < 5.0%, imaging clarity value T > 12.0, and image resolution≥128 px×128 px. This method provides support for the improvement of cigarette packing quality.