Anisotropic profiles and linewidths as small as 60 nm have been controllably achieved using pattern transfer by dry etching through stencil masks. This technique eliminates the conventional polymer resist and lithographic steps and could be useful in obtaining precisely reproducible submicrometer linewidths without variation due to run‐to‐run variability in resist processing. The stencil masks used in this study were 1‐μm‐thick SiNx membranes with transmission openings and are similar to those used for masked ion beam lithography. The dry etching techniques consisted of reactive ion etching, ion beam assisted etching, and hot jet etching. The profile and linewidth control depend on the divergence of the ion or reactive flux and the gap between the stencil mask and the sample.