To provide a method and an apparatus for a visual inspection, capable of specifying a distribution profile and a position of an object to be inspected.

The method comprises: a step (S11) of photographing a paste on a substrate as an image, thereby acquiring first image data; a step (S12) of computing the center of gravity of the substrate; a step (S13) of eliminating noises; a step (S14) of binarizing the first image data; a step (S15) of computing maximum and minimum fillet diameters, the center of gravity and the area of a cluster of binarized second image data acquired by above step; a step (S16) of extracting the cluster having the maximum area; a step (S17) of determining whether or not the cluster meets a first standard value; a step (S18) of determining whether or not the fillet diameter ratio of the cluster meets a second standard value; a step (S19) of computing the gravity center position of the maximum cluster; a step (S20) of determining whether or not the distance between the gravity center position of the substrate and the gravity center position of the maximum cluster meets a third standard value; and a step (S21) of sending the gravity center position of the maximum cluster to a following step.