Samarium- and dysprosium-modified lead titanate ceramics have been prepared by a sol-gel route to utilize the finer control of the process on homogeneity and microstructure. By varying the sintering schedule (temperature and time) for samarium-modified PbTiO3, ceramics with grain sizes ranging from submicrometre to 4 μm have been prepared. The dielectric and piezoelectric properties of ceramics poled sequentially from 0 to 60 kV cm−1 are reported. The dependence of the electromechanical properties on grain size and poling conditions is discussed. It is shown that dysprosium behaves very differently to samarium, and the successful insertion of dysprosium into the Pb2+ sites to produce true dysprosium-modified PbTiO3 ceramics was not possible.