The improvement of the topographical properties of optical components has led to the development of increasingly sensitive measurement methods, including methods for measuring light scattering. We report here on different types of light scattering measurement that have been developed over several decades as a universal tool for various optics characterization issues. Tactile metrology methods, such as atomic force microscopy, are very time-consuming and their results relate to small areas of the examined optics. In contrast, scattering can be used as a loss mechanism to determine the properties of the test objects, such as surfaces quality, homogeneity, and defect density. We present the latest developments by fast mapping of the Total Scattering losses according to the International Standard ISO 13696 as a routine characterization method for the industrial production environment. In addition, angle resolved scattering can be used as a non-destructive and non-invasive test to obtain information about the topographical characteristics of the entire optical surface, functional multilayer coatings, and volume structure of an optic. Defects in the form of particles are often incorporated in an optical functional coating during the deposition process. We present a setup based on scattering for particle detection in physical vapor deposition systems under vacuum conditions, which registers the successive occurrence of particles during the coating process. By assigning the particles count produced to the respective process parameters, their influence on the formation of defects can be investigated in more detail.