Film formation of three different latices was studied using atomic force microscopy. The latices were made from a mixture of butyl acrylate, styrene and acrylic acid using either a polymerizable or an unreactive aionic surfactant as emulsifier. Sodium 11-crotonoyloxyundecan- 1-ylsulfate and sodium-3-(sulfopropyl)tetradecylmaleate were used as reactive surfactant and the unreactive surfactant was sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS). The conventional surfactant was found to migrate to the surface of the latex film to a much greater extent than the reactive surfactants; however, also the latter were incompletely anchored to the particle. The maleate surfactant was bound to a higher degree than the crotonate, a finding which is in line with the relative reactivities of the two surfactants.