A general treatment for the geometric analysis of fracture surfaces, with or without overlap, is presented. Stereological and fractographic measurements made on the SEM fractograph and/or the fracture profile are expressed in terms of total or apparent projections. In order to calculate the true values of features in the fracture surface, several new parameters — including overlap, roughness and projection parameters — are required. Parametric conversion equations relate the measured apparent projection to the true spatial values of features in the fracture surface. An example is provided that demonstrates how the measured quantities are manipulated to obtain the desired true feature values.