We have developed a letterpress technique capable of printing polymer films with micrometer scale feature sizes onto flat or spherically shaped nonporous substrates. This printing technique deposits polymer only in desired regions thereby eliminating subsequent developing and subtraction. steps. Flat or curved printing plates, which are fabricated from either rigid or deformable materials, are used to transfer thin molten polymer films onto flat target substrates: By deforming the printing plates into a spherical shape, it is also possible to print patterned films onto the concave side of a spherically deformed target substrate. These printed films serve as good resists for both wet chemical etching. and reactive ion etching. Interferometric measurements of the polymer film thickness are used to probe physical mechanisms affecting printing instabilities, pattern fidelity, and edge resolution. Our experimental study indicates that this letterpress technique may prove suitable for high-throughput device fabrication involving large-area microelectronics. 2002 American Vacuum Society.