Cold rolled steel specimens were investigated by color etching. We proved that in this sample ferrite grains with a surface normal close to the (111) orientation are etched with the slowest speed with Beraha-I type color etchant, and that after a sufficient over-etching these specific grains could be distinguished based on this feature. It was demonstrated, that it is possible to stop the color etching in a phase when only grains with (111) orientation show color due to the layer interference, while all the other grains are dull gray due to a thick and transparent layer. This observation was utilized to develop a method to identify and quantify ferrite grains with (111) orientation in cold rolled steel samples with the application of color etching, optical microscopy and digital image post-processing.