STD 61 steel has been widely used for tools, metallic mold and die for press working because of its favorable mechanical properties such as high toughness, and creep strength as well as excellent oxidation resistance. The STD 61 tool steel coated with TiN and ZrN by sputtering results in improvement of wear and corrosion resistance. In this study, surface characteristics of TiN and ZrN film coated STD 61 by sputtering were studied by using FE-SEM, EDS, XRD, and XRR and nanoindentation tests. From the results of surface characteristics of coated specimen, the ZrN coated surface showed finer granular than that of TiN coated surface. The coated layer structures of ZrN and TiN were grown to (111) and (200) preferred orientation. From the results of XRR test for surface roughness, density and growth rate of coating film, surface roughness and growth rate of ZrN coated film revealed lower values those of TiN coated film, whereas density of ZrN coated film showed higher values than that of TiN coated film. From the nanohardness and elastic modulus test, nanohardness value and elastic modulus of ZrN coated film became higher than those of TiN coated film.