We report a selective metal-vapor deposition phenomenon based on solvent printing and evaporation on polymer surfaces and propose a method to prepare fine metal patterns using maskless vacuum deposition. Evaporation of the solvent molecules from the surface caused large free volumes between surface polymer chains and resulted in high mobility of the chains, enhancing metal-vapor atom desorption from the surface. This phenomenon was applied to prepare metal patterns on the polymer surface using solvent printing and maskless metal vacuum deposition. Metal patterns with high resolution of micron scale were obtained for various metal species and semiconductor polymer substrates including poly[2-methoxy-5-(2-ethylhexyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene] and poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl). (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.