The effect of sputtering conditions and silicate substrate properties on the crystallographic orientation of thin Cr films was investigated. The films were d.c. magnetron sputtered onto a number of different glass and glass-ceramic substrates under various sputtering conditions. The degree of orientation was determined using the Cr(110)/Cr(200) X-ray diffraction line intensity ratio. The results confirmed not only the necessity of substrate heating to produce [200] oriented films, as has been previously reported, but also showed that the degree of orientation depends on thermalization of the sputtered Cr atoms by the sputtering gas. Orientation was not found to be a function of the particular silicate substrate used. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements showed the presence of a thin Cr2O3 layer between the Cr film and the silicate substrate surface.