Textiles are considered one of the important industries for any country, but they produces many industrial wastes that affect the environment and health, as well as consume a lot of water and energy, which costs the country a lot of money. Recent trends in the textile industry aim to direct the researches to develop new ways to reduce the time, water and energy consumed by treating textile surfaces, either by chemical or physical surface treatment. The types of textile surface modifications summarized in this paper were discussed by chemical treatments such as surface grafting, enzymatic modification, ozonation and nano-treatments, and some of physical treatments such as plasma, gamma rays, microwave, ozone and /or UV. It has been shown the many properties acquired by these fabrics after treatment that make them more comfortable to use such as increased wettability, shrinking resistance, twisting and desizing of fibers, dyeing, printing and new functional advances including bacterial resistance, UV protection, self-cleaning, softness, easy care and stiffness. Also surface modification used to clean the fiber surface, deposit protective coatings on fibers or increase the strength of fibers.