Most problems in photomask fabrication such as pattern collapse, haze, and cleaning damage are related to the behavior of surfaces and interfaces of resists, opaque layers, and quartz substrates. Therefore, it is important to control the corresponding surface and interface energies in photomask fabrication processes. In particular, adhesion analysis in microscopic regions is strongly desirable to optimize material and process designs in photomask fabrication. We applied the direct peeling (DP) method with a scanning probe microscope (SPM) tip and measured the adhesion of resist patterns on Cr and quartz surfaces for photomask process optimization. We measured adhesion and frictional forces between the resulting collapsed resist pillar and the Cr or the quartz surface before and after the sliding. We also studied the effect of surface property of the Cr and quartz surfaces to resist adhesion. The adhesion could be controlled by surface modification using silanes and surface roughness on Cr blanks. We also discuss the relationship between the adhesion observed with the DP method and the properties of the modified surfaces including water contact angles and local adhesive forces measured from force-distance curves with an SPM.