Highly ordered porous films of cellulose-based graft copolymers were prepared by the breath figure method upon solvent evaporation. The morphology of the microporous films was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atom force microscopy (AFM). The influences of the preparing conditions, the length and the type of the side chains of copolymers on the morphology of the porous films were investigated. It was found that the average pore size is decreased with increasing the concentration of copolymer solutions and with increasing the side chain length. Moreover, it was confirmed that both the present aggregation in solution and the timely precipitation of copolymer are beneficial for the formation of the ordered microstructure by comparison of solvent and the property of side chains of copolymers. The porous films can be used as the template for the preparation of the micropatterning of fluorescence materials and have the potential applications in many fields such as templates, devices, nanocontainer, photonic and bandgap materials. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.