Abstract: To obtain the characteristics that can be used for grading tobacco leaves is a crucial step in the process of an automatic tobacco image grading system. This article first expounds the current national grading standard of tobacco leaves, and then explores the feasible methods which is suitable for industrial environment after analyzing techniques using the characteristics of the color, shape, texture and other technical measure, with considering of simplicity, economy, efficiency, and reliability. The method solved the problems in LED light, image feature extracting and choice of well distributed color model.