Lithographic and dry etching techniques have been used to fabricate submicron and micron sized elements from magnetic thin films. Through a combination of electron beam lithography and reactive ion etching using CF4/O-2 followed by CH4/H-2/O-2, well defined elements with lateral dimensions as small as 24 nm have been produced. The films were deposited on thin electron-transparent Si3N4 membranes so that the structural and micromagnetic properties of the elements could be studied by transmission electron microscopy. Lorentz microscopy on micron sized permalloy elements has confirmed that the magnetic integrity is maintained after patterning and a comparison with similar sized elements produced using a lift off route is given.