Nitride and carbide coatings of titanium and diamondlike carbon (DLC) coatings containing a small amount of titanium were deposited onto AISI 420 substrates by unbalanced magnetron sputtering techniques. The structures of the different coatings were analyzed by x-ray diffraction, Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, and infrared spectroscopy. The TiN, TiCxNy, and TiC coatings exhibited strong (111), (111), or (200) and (220) preferential orientations, respectively. The different tribological behaviors of TIN, TiC, TiCxNy, and DLC coatings were investigated and compared. In addition, the microhardness and adhesion of the coatings were also measured. The hardness values for all the coatings increased with the carbon content going from purl TIN to the DLC coating. The experimental results indicated that the DLC-10%Ti coating showed excellent properties, i.e., a high microhardness value (about 40.0 GPa), excellent adhesion (about L-c 11.0 kg), a lower friction coefficient, and an extremely long wear lifetime (about 58 h).