A high resolution x-ray mask compatible with a commercial stepper has been realized with a diamond membrane and electroplated gold structures. The membrane was optimized to satisfy all the requirements needed for x-ray proximity lithography using soft x rays at the super-AGO synchrotron facility. Patterning was optimized using a conventional 50 keV vector scan generator. High density high resolution gold gratings were obtained with linewidth down to 60 nm with periods as small as 120 nm. It was found that the resolution for our current studies was mainly limited by the resist thickness and not by the diamond surface morphology or the electrodeposition process. Alignment performance has been evaluated. Preliminary results show that diamond material with a 20 nm root-mean-square surface roughness is acceptable for good alignment performance.