A new instrument to evaluate (1) yarn appearance and to replace taper board has been developed. The system relies on Lawson-Hemphill's EIB which optically scans the yarn at a high scanning rate. Using this and multiple pieces of information, a correlation and calibration was found to grade cotton yarn. Three groups of ring-spun yarn were pre-classified by USDA, graded A, B, C, and D, were tested and a correlation was found.