A new patterning approach using polymer-on-polymer stamping (POPS) has been developed to fabricate polymer-colloid templates for controlling selective cell attachment. In this paper, a polyamine surface patterned onto a poly(acrylic acid)/poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAA/PAH) cell resistant multilayer platform serves as a template for the deposition of close- or loose-packed colloidal particles. Peptides containing the RGD adhesion sequence were used to modify the PAH/colloid surface for specific cell attachment. Cell behavior was studied by varying colloidal packing array density, pattern geometry, and surface chemistry. It was found that loose-packed RGD-modified colloidal arrays enhance cell adhesion, as observed through the development of focal adhesion contacts and orientation of actin stress fibers, but close-packed colloidal arrays induce a rounded and nonadhesive cell morphology and yield a smaller number of attached cells. On loose-packed arrays, cells adjust their shapes to the pattern geometry when the stripe width is smaller than 50 mum and increase their extent of attachment when the concentration of surface RGD peptides is increased. This new biomaterials system allows the examination of cell behavior as a function of RGD surface distribution on the molecular to micrometer scale and reveals cellular response to different surface roughnesses.