Both ex situ and in situ atomic force microscopy have been applied to study the (1 1 1) and (1 0 0) surfaces of tabular silver bromide crystals grown from dimethyl sulphoxide-water solutions. This resulted in observations of monosteps, macrosteps, etch pits, pinning of steps and nucleated crystals showing twin planes. These examinations indicate that the growth and dissolution of both the (1 0 0) and the polar (1 1 1) faces occur via steps in many configurations. The registered 40-nm distance between the parallel twin planes of the nucleated crystals agrees with transmission electron microscopy measurements done on tabular crystals grown by the industrial double-jet precipitation method. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.