The finite-difference time-domain method (FDTD) is used to accurately characterize complex planar printed antennas with various feed structures, which include coaxial probe feed, microstrip line feed, and aperture coupled feed structures. A new coaxial probe model is developed by using a three-dimensional FDTD technique. This model is shown to be an efficient and accurate tool for modeling coaxial-line fed structures. A novel use of a dispersive absorbing boundary condition is presented for a printed antenna with a high dielectric constant. All the numerical results obtained by the FDTD method are compared with experimental results, and the comparison shows excellent agreement over a wide frequency band.