Nanoparticles have aroused great attentions due to their board applications. The research and development of pigment nano-particles has greatly improved the performance of printing products. Through design and preparation of monodispersed nanoparticles, we have developed a simple method for assembly of large-area polymer photonic crystals (PCs), and achieved large-scale PCs by inkjet printing and spray coating, as-prepared colloidal PCs posses high mechanical strength, controllable wettability, and tunable stopbands. The extended applications of colloidal PCs are demonstrated in high-information information storage, ultra-sensitive detecting, high-efficient catalysis.