Abstract: A method of patterning a surface of a substrate comprising: (a) applying a coating to the surface to form a coated surface, and (b) treating the coated surface with a patterned microplasma comprising a plurality of localised microplasma discharges such that localised regions of the coated surface are selectively exposed to the localised microplasma discharges to form exposed localised regions and unexposed regions that have not been substantially exposed to a microplasma discharge; wherein the coating at the exposed localised regions is modified by the patterned microplasma and the coating at the unexposed regions is substantially unmodified to form a patterned surface on the substrate.