Fresnel zone plate patterns, free of spherical aberration, with diameters of up to 0.63 mm and linewidths as small as 1000 A were fabricated on polyimide membrane x‐ray masks using scanning electron beam lithography. Distortion of the electron beam scan raster was reduced to ?2500 A over a 2×2 mm field by applying deflection corrections, while viewing the distortion using a Moire method. CK x‐ray lithography was used to replicate the zone plate pattern in thick PMMA over a 100 A thick plating base on a glass substrate. Zones plates in 1.3 μm thick gold were fabricated by plating, and made free‐standing by removal of the plating base and the supporting glass substrate. Zone plates were tested as imaging elements with visible light and soft x‐rays.