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This paper gives an overview of our recent research activities on the lateral supramolecular order of a variety of native and man-made cellulosics considering respective results from the literature. Wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) was the main investigation technique used. Lateral root mean squared lattice strains between 2 and 3% were determined for the materials investigated. Crystallite sizes obtained without considering lattice distortions usually do not deviate by much more than −10% from the real, i.e. fully corrected values. This means that it is sufficient to use the simple Scherrer equation for determining lateral crystallite sizes for most routine investigations of cellulosic materials. The possible superposition of WAXS peaks of the triclinic I_α and monoclinic I_β lattice types, however, has to be considered in crystallite size determinations for Valonia cellulose. It could be shown that neglecting this fact …