Introduction As plastics and plastic composites are placed into service in more demanding applications, surface modifi cations are performed to enhance the durability and increase service life. Commonly, hard coatings are used on display screens to prevent damage; for example, coatings are applied to cellular telephone display screens to prevent scratching while the phone is placed in a pocket with keys and other sharp objects. Other surface modifi cations are made to increase adhesion of multilayered systems, create fade resistant properties, or to increase fl exibility. In this article, polymer fi lms with different surface treatments are characterized through nanoindentation, scratch testing, and elevated temperature testing. Major differences in the indentation and scratch results are shown for the coated samples. In addition, the results for elastic modulus and hardness at elevated temperatures are supplied on four different cellulose fi lms.