The preparation of microlenses on a substrate and light emitting devices employing microlenses on the surface from which light is emitted is described. The miscrolenses are formed on a surface that has been coated to have functionality that promotes a sufficiently large contact angle of the microlense on the surface and contains functionality for bonding the microlense to the coating. The microlenses are formed on the coating by deposition of a microlense precursor resin as a microdrop by inkjet printing and copolymerizing the resin with the bonding functionality in the coating. The coating can be formed from a mixture of silane coupling agents that contain functionality in some of the coupling agents that is copolymeriable with the resin such that the microlens can be formed and bonded to the surface by photopolymerization.