A near-field microscope using one or more diffractive elements placed in the near-field of an object to be imaged. A diffractive covers the entire object, thus signal may thereby be gathered from the entire object, and advantageously increase the signal-to-noise ratio of the resulting image, as well as greatly improve the acquisition speed. Near-field microscopy overcomes the limitation of conventional microscopy in that subwavelength and nanometer-scale features can be imaged and measured without contact.