Soluble aromatic polyimides with inherent viscosities of 0.23-0.50 dL/g have been synthesized from 2,2-bis ( 3-amino-4-hydroxyphenyl) hexafluoropropane (BAPAF) and various aromatic tetracarboxylic dianhydrides. Almost all polyimides were soluble in a wide range of organic solvents, i.e., acetone, m-cresol, N,N-dimethylacetamide, N,N-dimethylformamide, N,N-dimethylsulfoxide, N-methyl-2-pyrolidone, methyl ethyl ketone, and tetrahydrofuran (except that polyimide deriven from 3,3',4,4'-biphenyl tetracarboxylic dianhydride) . Synthesized polyimides have a glass transition temperature in a range of 293 to 355"C, showing no appreciable weight loss up to 400ยฐC in both air and nitrogen. These soluble polyimides exhibit high transparency in the UV visible region, with water absorption being between 3.6 to 5.7 wt %. They provide an aqueous base developable positive photoresist system when formulated with diazonaphthoquinone sensitizer. On the other hand, negative photoactive polyimides which are soluble in common organic solvents and optically transparent at a light of 365 nm wavelength, being obtained by reacting these soluble polyimides with methacryloyl chloride. Properties and characteristics of both positive and negative photoactive polyimides have been studied here.