Depositions of decorative and wear resistant single layer coatings like TiN, Ti(B,N), CrN, NbN, NbON, (Ti,Mg)N and multilayer coatings like Cr/CrN, Nb/NbN, CrN/NbN and NbN/Nb-C:H were performed using reactive magnetron sputtering. The corrosion behaviour of the coated high speed steel substrates was studied in sodium chloride containing media by open-circuit-potential measurements, potentiodynamic corrosion tests and salt spray tests. Up to now, the best improvements with respect to the corrosion resistance in salt spray tests could be obtained for the system (Ti,Mg)N/high speed steel. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.