A substantial fraction of synchrotron radiation-based research is being carried out today with an “imaging-type” approach, where the relevant information such as density, chemical composition, chemical states, structure, and crystallographic perfection are mapped in two, or, increasingly, in three dimensions. Techniques are clearly heading towards fulfilling the nanoscale challenge, this implying higher spatial resolution X-ray imaging. Many different scientific communities, such as materials science, soft condensed matter, biology, and cultural heritage, require this. High spatial resolution, beyond the detector resolution, is being achieved by nanofocused beams or by lensless coherent diffraction imaging, with a generalized use of phase contrast. A second obvious trend is the improvement of temporal resolution, made possible by the specific development of X-ray detectors and computing upgrades. The availability of very efficient lenses in the hard X-ray range (2-100 keV) led to a dramatic progress of the scanning version of X-ray imaging (microbeam based imaging). This is used for structural (combining diffraction and imaging) and chemically–selective X-ray imaging (high spatial resolution fluorescence maps, or chemical state using energy dispersive micro-spectroscopy). Recent developments exploit the coherence of the synchrotron X-ray beams for sophisticated phase contrast imaging or coherent diffraction imaging. These techniques rely on improvements of detectors and algorithms, in particular for the reconstruction of “holotomographic” images, and for the iterative determination of the phase of the scattering amplitude in coherent diffraction imaging. In addition the increasing demand to access SR-based imaging techniques requires implementation of automation, and high throughput. These new opportunities will be discussed and illustrated by examples of applications to a wide variety of materials, which reveal features not observable otherwise.

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