Investigations concerning the development of a chemical vapour deposition process for the structured deposition of titanium nitride coatings onto tool steel at low substrate temperatures are presented. In order to stimulate local film growth of hard coatings, excimer and argon ion laser beams were used respectively. In the experiments with the excimer laser, the beam projection method was used. The TiN(x) coatings were deposited from the precursor gas tetrakis-(dimethylamido)-titanium (Ti(N(CH3)2)4), in a reactive atmosphere of nitrogen and hydrogen at the excimer wavelengths 248 nm and 351 rum in combination with an additional r.f. or d.c. discharge. Experiments using an argon ion laser were carried out with a focused laser beam, where lateral film growth was induced by laser scanning. In particular, the deposition of TiN(x) from TiCl4-N2-H-2 and TiCl4-NH3 gas mixtures was investigated.