Reflection or fluorescence microscopy method for increasing the resolution of a laser scanning microscope (LSM) when detecting an illuminated sample (P), wherein - an illumination pattern is produced on the sample (P) and - the illuminated sample is imaged by the microscope on a detector device, - the illumination pattern comprises at least one diffraction-limited point (L1) and is repeatedly displaced relative to the sample (P) in a plurality of steps, wherein the illumination pattern is moved over the sample (P) along a direction set by a vector x, - the detector device is embodied as a pixel-comprising area detector (DE; CCD1, CCD2), - an effective pixel dimension of the area detector (DE; CCD1, CCD2) is only a fraction of a full width at half maximum of a point spread function of the imaging, taking account of an imaging scale of the microscope, - an increment of the displacement is smaller than an optical resolution limit of the microscope (LSM) and detection signals of the area detector are stored for each step, characterized in that - a signal intensity D D x 0 ∝ ∫ − ∞ ∞ H x − x 0 ⋅ I x ⋅ c x dx is obtained at each pixel using the detector, where c( x ) : concentration distribution of reflecting structures or luminous fluorophores of the sample (P), H : point spread function of the imaging, I( x ): illumination intensity distribution as a function of x, and - the intensity is determined in each case with n as index for the various illumination settings and j as index for the detector pixel, as a result of which a system of equations D 1 , j = ∑ j I 1 , j ⋅ c j ⋅ H 1 , j D 2 , j = ∑ j I 2 , j ⋅ c j ⋅ H 2 , j ⋮ D n , j = ∑ j I n , j ⋅ c j ⋅ H n , j results and the latter is solved at least approximately for c. - an illumination pattern is produced on the sample (P) and - the illuminated sample is imaged by the microscope on a detector device, - the illumination pattern comprises at least one diffraction-limited point (L1) and is repeatedly displaced relative to the sample (P) in a plurality of steps, wherein the illumination pattern is moved over the sample (P) along a direction set by a vector x, - the detector device is embodied as a pixel-comprising area detector (DE; CCD1, CCD2), - an effective pixel dimension of the area detector (DE; CCD1, CCD2) is only a fraction of a full width at half maximum of a point spread function of the imaging, taking account of an imaging scale of the microscope, - an increment of the displacement is smaller than an optical resolution limit of the microscope (LSM) and detection signals of the area detector are stored for each step, characterized in that - a signal intensity D D x 0 ∝ ∫ − ∞ ∞ H x − x 0 ⋅ I x ⋅ c x dx is obtained at each pixel using the detector, where c( x ) : concentration distribution of reflecting structures or luminous fluorophores of the sample (P), H : point spread function of the imaging, I( x ): illumination intensity distribution as a function of x, and - the intensity is determined in each case with n as index for the various illumination settings and j as index for the detector pixel, as a result of which a system of equations D 1 , j = ∑ j I 1 , j ⋅ c j ⋅ H 1 , j D 2 , j = ∑ j I 2 , j ⋅ c j ⋅ H 2 , j ⋮ D n , j = ∑ j I n , j ⋅ c j ⋅ H n , j results and the latter is solved at least approximately for c. <EOS>