in textile wet processing, fabrics are often treated with surfactants followed by rinsing and drying. residual surfactant fixed by heat on the fabric might be expected to alter the physical properties and dyeing properties of the fabric. to examine this hypothesis, the authors have treated cotton, nylon, and polyester fabrics with either a representative anionic, nonionic, or cationic surfactant or with n,n-dimethylformamide (dmf) followed by heat curing of the fabric at 150 $degree$ c for 2 minutes. in some cases these treatments were found to cause significant changes in selected physical properties and in the dyeing characteristics and the resultant color of the fabrics. the dyeing characteristics and resultant color of the fabrics were changed by the treatments with the degree of color difference being dependent on the treatment-fiber-dye combination used. the light and washfastness of the dyed fabrics were essentially unchanged by the treatments except for inferior wash and lightfastness observed with certain cationic surfactant-treated, dyed nylon fabrics. 7 refs