Magnetic resonance (MR) images of five patients with osteomas of the skull and six patients with other primary skull tumors were reviewed. All osteomas appeared as low-intensity areas on T1-weighted images. T2-weighted images showed homogeneous low-intensity areas in two dense osteomas, a high-intensity area in one spongy osteoma, and mixed intensity areas in two mixed spongy and dense osteomas, respectively. The signal intensities of osteomas on T2-weighted MR images correlated well with the histological findings. Other skull tumors showed no specific MR imaging appearance.