Fig. S12.

A schematic illustration of water condensation on the patterned surface. Water droplets condensed in the hydrophilic region grow into large drops. Water microdroplets condensed at the superhydrophobic rim can jump out of plane (as indicated by the arrows), powered by the excess surface energy released on microdroplet coalescence. Water microdroplets remain in the flat hydrophobic regions and scatter light. Therefore, these regions still appear dark during bright field microscopy, whereas the rim regions appear white in the optical micrographs (cf Fig. 5).