Surface chemical modification of cellulose-based substrates has been carried out by atmospheric pressure plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (AP-PECVD) of acrylic acid. The structure/properties relationship of the samples was studied as a function of the plasma experimental conditions. Acrylic acid monomer/helium ratio and treatment speed clearly influences the wettability properties of the paper substrate: advancing contact angle values were reduced to the half if compare to non-treated paper. Surface morphology of the films did not greatly vary at short polymerization times but fibers were covered by a poly(acrylic acid) film at longer times. FUR and XPS techniques allowed detecting the retention of carboxylic acid groups/moieties. The possibility to quickly design architectures with tunable carboxylic functions by modifying the plasma processing parameters is shown. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.