Oligopaints could provide a means for marking chromosomes with superior resolution and labeling functionality than currently commercially available chromosome paint alternatives. In addition, the technology may be applied to any organism for which there is a genome sequence. The Oligopaint technology could provide for more flexible customization (e.g., user can choose which fluors, which chromosomal regions to paint, which DNA strand to mark) while potentially avoiding background issues caused by repetitive sequences. The Oligopaint technology may open new channels of investigation to chromosome biology and potentially to next-generation diagnostics based on high-resolution karyotyping.