We investigated two methods for imprinting metrology according to optical reflectance and transmittance of the imprinted substrates. We utilized the reflectance of two polarization states at 780 nm, for similar to 100-nm polymer features with depth/width ratios > approximate to 1 imprinted on ten 100-mm Si wafers. We not only successfully extracted the grating width, height, and residual polymer layers of the imprint but also assessed the uniformity and defects, as well as the aging of the templates from the same data. For transparent substrates, the optical test at shorter wavelengths clearly demonstrated a process monitor with 5-nm depth resolution for gratings of periods at 150 nm with direct applicability to periods less than 50 nm. (c) 2006 American Vacuum Society.