Abstract The use of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging techniques for determination of porosity and saturation distributions is investigated. Difficulties in quantitation which arise from the short transverse relaxation times exhibited by fluids in porous media are addressed. Procedures are presented whereby transverse relaxation during the signal acquisition process is modeled so that accurate estimates of intrinsic magnetization intensity, and thus porosity and saturation, can be obtained. Special consideration is given to saturation/position dependence and multi-exponential behavior of transverse relaxation. These procedures are validated with results for longitudinal profile images. The use of thin-slice cross sectional profile images are demonstrated by observing fluid displacement in a rock sample with structural heterogeneities.