A method for inspecting a portion of a tire surface involves comparison with an image of a three-dimensional (“3D”) reference surface. The method includes: extracting contours of graphic elements of an image of a 3D profile of a surface to be inspected; transforming the reference surface by establishing a correspondence between the contours of the graphic elements of the surface to be inspected and contours of identical graphic elements of the reference surface using a series of transformations; associating a B-spline surface, which includes control points, with the graphic elements of the transformed reference surface; and deforming the contours of the graphic elements of the reference surface by modifying positions of the control points of the B- spline surface so as to minimize distances between the contours of the graphic elements of the reference surface and the contours of the graphic elements of the surface to be inspected corresponding thereto.