An instrument and method have been devised for scanning thin-layer chromatograms by diffuse reflectance. The heart of the instrument is a fiber-optic scanning head containing randomly mixed glass fibers; half of the fibers conducts light to a small defined area of the thin-layer plate being scanned at a constant rate, and the other half conducts the reflected light to a photosensing cell that has its response recorded. In dual-beam operation a second fiber-optic, which scans the blank area adjacent to the spots, is used to correct for background differences on the plate. In typical analyses, variation attributable to chromatographic technique was between 11 and 16%, while instrumental variation was only 1 to 2%. Data on the performance of the instrument in determining chlorinated and thiophosphate pesticides are presented.