Novel sol-gel processes for the preparation of grain-oriented thin films of pure and aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) are reported. Using various stabilizing ligands, oxide films with different degree of c-axis orientation could be prepared on amorphous substrates. The origin of orientation in sol-gel-derived ZnO and AZO films is investigated. The texture selection of ZnO films is independent of the heat-treatment schedule but sensitive to the precursor system. The electrical properties of the films do not depend significantly on the crystallographic orientation. The film visible transmittance remained higher than 90% even after vacuum annealing.