X-ray topography is a group of methods for obtaining diffraction images of structural defects in crystals. Among them, section topography techniques are distinguished by their abilities in acquiring quantitative information about defects based on the analysis of the images. For this purpose, special applications of the dynamic theory of X-ray diffraction are being developed. The interference of wave fields excited in a crystal by an X-ray beam is the basis of the section methods. Their sensitivity to weak lattice distortions is much higher than that of other X-ray methods. This review describes the physical foundations and implementation of the section topography techniques, as well as the results of computer simulating the wave field in a crystal. We present some examples of solving materials science and microelectronics problems and briefly describe the section topography using synchrotron radiation.