Polyimides (PIs) exhibit excellent thermal stability, mechanical, dielectric, and chemical resistance properties due to their heterocyclic imide rings and aromatic rings on the backbone. Due to these advantageous properties, PIs have found diverse applications in industry. Most PIs are insoluble because of the nature of the high chemical resistance. Thus, they are generally used as a soluble precursor polymer, which forms complexes with solvent molecules, and then finally converts to the corresponding polyimides via imidization reaction. This complexation with solvent has caused severe difficulty in the characterization of the precursor polymers. However, significant progress has recently been made on the detailed characterization of PI precursors and their imidization reaction. On the other hand, much research effort has been exerted to reduce the dielectric constant of PIs, as demanded in the microelectronics industry, through chemical modifications, as well as to develop high performance, light-emitting PIs and liquid crystal (LC) alignment layer PIs with both rubbing and rubbing-free processibility, which are desired in the flat-panel display industry. This article reviews this recent research progresses in characterizing PIs and their precursors and in developing low dielectric constant, light-emitting, and LC alignment layer PIs.