The interest in applications of atmospheric‐pressure plasmas to solve surface‐technological tasks was originally motivated primarily by the expectation that major cost savings could be achieved if plasma‐based processes, conventionally run below 1 mbar, could now be performed at ambient pressure. However, it was soon recognized that, working at 1 bar, also completely new techniques are made feasible by the utilization of microdischarges, thanks to strongly reduced mean free paths of plasma constituents. The present contribution gives an overview of a number of possibilities, studied in the recent years, to apply atmospheric‐pressure microplasmas for the patterned coating or surface modification of two‐ and three‐dimensional substrates.