Aluminium oxynitride (AlON) has a unique thermal and chemical stability that makes it the perfect candidate for a wide range of applications. This article provides a brief description and comparison of the most common AlON preparation methods along with their advantages and disadvantages. Although there has been extensive research on the material, especially more recently because of increased commercial interest, extensive systematic powder synthesis and processing studies have not been carried out to determine alternate, more cost efficient routes to fully dense transparent bodies. Further optimization of reaction sintering and transient liquid phase sintering could be important processing routes.