This paper describes an experimentally simple technique, based on stamping or contact printing, to pattern the adsorption of alkanethiolates on surfaces of gold, on scales from 0.2 to 100 mum, and illustrates the use of these patterned surfaces. An elastomeric stamp, fabricated from poly(dimethylsiloxane)(PDMS), was used to deliver alkanethiol to predetermined regions of the surface of an evaporated gold film. With this technique, organic surfaces patterned with well-defined regions exhibiting different chemical and physical properties have been produced. This technique was used to pattern the adsorption of single and multiple SAMs on a single substrate. This method of preparing patterned surfaces has been used in a variety of applications, including the preparation of well-defined, heterogeneous substrates for scanning probe microscopies, the formation of microelectrodes, the formation of microstructures of silicon, the preparation of substrates for the study of condensation figures, and the preparation of substrates for patterned formation of microcrystals.