It has always been difficult to determine the heat capacity of a polymer experimentally. However, with the arrival of differential scanning calorimetry, the determination of such heat capacity could be achieved more quickly, but the precision of the measurement was always limited by the need to correlate the relative heights of thermogram signals obtained from the polymer under study and a standard reference material. The technique reported in this article is as fast as the traditional technique in differential scanning calorimeter, but the accuracy of the measured heat capacity is high because it is based on the measurement of areas rather than determination of height differences. In addition, it is not necessary to use a standard sample as a reference. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.