Particles in mechanical pulp are a heterogeneous popu-lation, but commonly described using averages based on wide and skewed distributions. It was found that these aver-ages may lead to erroneous conclusions regarding the char-acter of the material and also how the material has been de-veloped along the process. This study is based on measure-ments of individual particle dimensions (length, curl, and ex-ternal fibrillation) in mill operation of CTMP and TMP as detected in an optical analyser.