Since the invention in 1980s, scanning probe microscopy (SPM) has been considered as the valuable avenue to visualize topography of sample in nanoscale. After more than 30-year development, SPMs have been widely utilized in collecting nanoscale features in diverse researches, like self-assembly, catalysis, semiconductor, lithography, etc. Nowadays the collected information from SPM has been largely extended beyond surface topography. Advanced SPMs are of capability to characterize the chemical, electronic, magnetic and mechanical properties of samples. These data are efficient supplementary to topography to understand materials from alternating points of view. This newly developed equipment is also able to record the dynamic behaviors of many systems with temporal resolution shorter than one second, and spatial resolution in sub-nanometer. The main purpose of this tutorial is to provide the basics of SPM, and introduce several promising advanced SPM modes. Then the representative applications of SPMs in nanomaterials such as self-assembly and folding of biomolecule, characterization of nano-devices will be summarized to inspire further research and application in nano-world.