This paper presents a comprehensive set of image processing algorithms for detection and characterization of road pavement surface crack distresses, which is being made available to the research community. The toolbox, in the Matlab environment, includes algorithms to pre-process images, to detect cracks and characterize them into types, based on image processing and pattern recognition techniques, as well as modules devoted to the performance evaluation of crack detection and characterization solutions. A sample database of 84 pavement surface images taken during a traditional road survey is provided with the toolbox, since no pavement image databases are publicly available for crack detection and characterization evaluation purposes. Results achieved applying the proposed toolbox to the sample database are discussed, illustrating the potential of the available algorithms.