An article visual inspection apparatus capable of detecting that the surface conditions of an article are so inferior as to render the article unusable as a product and rejecting the same as a defective article by inspecting the article for external defects, occurring on the surface of the article, such as streaks, dice marks and rough surfaces of an aluminum extruded shape. The visual inspection apparatus comprises an imaging device (1) for imaging the surface of the article, and an image processing device (3) for capturing the picked up image. The image processing device (3) has a plurality of image processing units that compare a captured image with a set judging reference value to evaluate the result, whereby the quality of surface conditions is evaluated based on external defects such as streaks, dice marks and rough surfaces of an aluminum extruded shape, and evaluations by the respective image processing units are weighted by a weighting unit to thereby comprehensively judge whether to accept or reject the article.