This paper presents a study of the optical properties and the microstructure of semitransparent interference TiO2/Ti/glass systems obtained by gas injection magnetron sputtering (GIMS). The samples are examined by means of spectroscopic ellipsometry, spectrophotometry and atomic force microscopy. The investigation is complemented by colorimetric measurements. Optical constants of titanium and titanium dioxide layers are determined and carefully studied. An influence of the deposition time on the thickness of metallic and dielectric films has been found. The thickness of Ti films ranges from 12 nm to 73 nm, while that of TiO2 films varies from 11 nm to 43 nm. This thickness directly determines the color of a sample from gold to blue, respectively. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.