This invention pertains to a silsesquioxane resin with improved lithographic properties (such as etch-resistance, transparency, resolution, sensitivity, focus latitude, line edge roughness, and adhesion) suitable as a photoresist; a method for in-corporating the fluorinated or non-fluorinated functional groups onto silsesquioxane backbone. The silsesquioxane resins of this invention has the general structure (HSiO.sub.3/2).sub.a(RSiO.sub.3/2).sub.b wherein; R is an acid dissociable group, a has a value of 0.2 to 0.9 and b has a value of 0.1 to 0.8 and 0.9.ltoreq.a+b.ltoreq.1.0.