We use annular apertures to produce coded images of inertial‐confinement fusion targets. The images are formed with 4–9‐keV x rays; they are unfolded to obtain high‐quality estimates of the source spatial distribution. Excellent time‐integrated images have been obtained using x‐ray film as a detector, and we are working to obtain time‐resolved images using a gated microchannel‐plate x‐ray detector. Preliminary resolution‐grid experiments show that the spatial resolution is ≤5 &mgr;m, and further experiments are planned to confirm a predicted resolution of ≤3 &mgr;m. We discuss the apertures, x‐ray detectors, and image‐processing software that forms this novel x‐ray microscope.