Methods and systems for effecting responses on surfaces utilizing microlens arrays including microoptical components embedded or supported by a support element and positioned from the surface at a distance essentially equal to the image distance of the microoptical component with spacer elements are disclosed. Microlens arrays can be used to manipulate incident energy or radiation having a distribution in characteristic property(s) defining an object pattern to form a corresponding image pattern on a substrate surface. The energy can be light having a pattern or a specific wavelength, intensity or polarization or coherence alignment. The image pattern can have features of order 100 nm in size or less produced from corresponding object patterns having features in the order millimeters. The size of the object pattern can be reduced by the microlens arrays described by a factor of 100 or more using a single step process to form the image patterns.