Paint Formulations by Paint Type: The Additive Package of Each

Paint formulation differs by paint type, and this section covers the additive package of 10 types: latex (emulsion) wall paint, water-based enamel, alkyd, distemper, wood stain and varnish, primer, nitrocellulose, 2K epoxy, 2K polyurethane and road marking paint. The film formation route decides which additive families a formula needs, and the paint type decides which VOC category limits it. A latex paint that coalesces carries dispersants, defoamers, thickeners, a coalescent and an in-can biocide, while an alkyd that cures by oxidation carries driers and an anti-skinning agent.

Additives are one of 5 raw-material groups in a paint and are drawn from the 15 families of paint additives, at about 1.8 % of total formula in one published EU Ecolabel matte guide formulation. Below come the two directory tables, a 4-step way to pick a page, one published package per film formation route, the VOC category of every paint type and how to read a guide formulation's basis.

How we check: regulations and classifications are read at the body that issues them, standards at the standards body, and every additive level names its basis and its source; the full method is in methodology and fact-checking.

What Is a Paint Formulation?#

A paint formulation lists a paint's 5 raw-material groups (binder, pigment, extender, solvent or water, and additives), each with its amount on a stated basis and its stage of addition. Every amount needs its basis: % on total formula, % on pigment, % metal on binder solids or ppm active.

Additives are a small part of the formula by weight, and paint raw materials such as binder, pigment and water make up the rest. The PCC EU Ecolabel indoor white matte guide formulation carries about 1.8 % additives on total formula, and a distributor guide formulation from Raykem for an interior mid-sheen paint carries 1.35 to 3.45 % of total batch. The PCC waterborne direct-to-metal anticorrosive guide formulation reaches about 11 % additives as supplied on total formula, of which a coalescent supplies 2.2 %, two HEUR thickener solutions at 50 % supply 4.1 % and corrosion inhibitors 2.0 %.

The matte guide formulation was designed against EU Ecolabel Decision 2014/312/EU. Decision (EU) 2025/2607 of 2025-12-17 repealed it, and the new criteria for paints are valid until 2032-12-31, and its caps now apply to a paint that carries the label.

Is Paint a Formulation or a Reaction Product?#

Paint is a formulation: EPA AP-42, section 6.4, describes paint manufacture as only physical processes of weighing, mixing, grinding, tinting, thinning and packaging, with no chemical reaction. The chemistry happens before paint making, in the resin, or after it, in the curing film.

Resin making is the step before. The same EPA document treats varnish cooking at 93-340 °C (200-650 °F) for 4-16 h as resin making, not paint mixing, while how paint is manufactured from finished resins stays at about room temperature in large mixing tanks. The premix, dispersion and let-down stages, and where each additive enters, are explained on how paint is manufactured.

The 10 Paint-Type Formulation Pages#

The 10 paint-type formulation pages split into 6 decorative and wood-finish types and 4 industrial and road types. Each page sets out the binder system, the additive package by stage, a framework from published guide formulations, the defects of that paint type and its VOC category.

The decorative pages map onto the subcategories a to h of Annex I of Directive 2004/42/EC, the EU rule for paints applied to buildings. Two paint types have no page of their own: antifouling paint formulation sits with the antifouling biocides and texture paint formulation with the texture additives, both in the footer rows of the industrial table.

Which Pages Cover Decorative and Wood Finishes?#

Six pages cover decorative wall, trim and wood paints, from waterborne latex to solventborne alkyd, and primers for walls, wood and metal. The table lists each page with its binder system and one published example it builds on.

Which Pages Cover Industrial and Road Marking Paints?#

Four pages cover industrial liquid paints that cure by reaction or by solvent loss, and road marking paints that lie outside the EU decorative-paint rules. The table lists each page and the published example behind it, with two footer rows for paint types hosted on additive pages.

Shop-applied industrial paint follows installation and district rules, not the decorative-paint limits. Directive 2004/42/EC exempts products used only in authorized installations (Art. 3(2)), and the US federal AIM rule covers field-applied architectural coatings, while the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) regulates shop-applied paint by Rule 1107 (metal parts, amended 2025-12-05) and Rule 1136 (wood products, amended 2026-06-05).

How to Pick the Right Formulation Page: Carrier, Cure and Use#

Pick the formulation page by three questions in turn: the carrier (water or solvent), the film formation route (coalescence, oxidation, a two-component reaction or solvent loss) and the place of use (building, factory or road). The 4 steps are listed below.

1. Decide the carrier: water for latex wall paint, water-based enamel and distemper; organic solvent for alkyd gloss and nitrocellulose lacquer; both for primers, wood finishes, epoxy, polyurethane and road marking paint.
2. Decide the cure: coalescence for emulsion, acrylic enamel and washable distemper; oxidative cure for alkyd, waterborne alkyd enamel and alkyd primers; a 2K reaction for epoxy and polyurethane; solvent evaporation for nitrocellulose.
3. Decide the use: coatings for buildings, their trim and fittings and associated structures fall under Annex I of Directive 2004/42/EC, and field-applied architectural coatings fall under the US federal AIM rule.
4. Open the page in the decorative or the industrial table above.

Primers cross the split between the two tables: wall, wood and anticorrosive metal primers share one page. Epoxy and polyurethane paints applied to buildings fall in EU subcategory j, two-pack reactive performance coatings. This sorting into carrier, cure and use is the grouping of the 10 pages on this site, not a standard.

How Film Formation Sets the Additive Families of a Formula#

Film formation sets the additive families of a formula: coalescence calls for a coalescent, oxidative cure for driers and an anti-skinning agent, and a 2K reaction for dispersants, thixotropes and anticorrosive pigments. The table gives one published package per route, each with its own basis.

The EU Ecolabel bounds the alkyd package. Decision (EU) 2025/2607 excludes driers classified as carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction, caps total driers at 0.10 % w/w and anti-skinning agents at 0.40 % w/w, allows a cobalt drier classified H400 and H410 up to 0.050 % w/w by derogation and derogates only H317, H412 and H413 for anti-skinning agents.

Each value in the table keeps the basis of its source, because paint additive dosage compares only on one basis. Heubach guide formulations give % on total mixed paint, the Borchers/Milliken control gives parts per 100 parts of base paint, and the plasticizing resins are dosed on the nitrocellulose dry weight. The conversions between these bases are worked through under paint additive dosage.

Which VOC Category Limits Each Formulation Page?#

Each paint type falls into one EU Decopaint subcategory, limited in g/L of the ready-to-use paint since 2010-01-01, and into one US federal AIM category, limited in g/L less water and exempt compounds. Road marking paint is the one type that the EU Directive does not cover.

The table gives the subcategory or category of each paint type with its limit; WB means waterborne and SB solventborne, and lb/gal values use 1 lb/gal = 119.83 g/L.

SCAQMD Rule 1113, as amended 2016-02-05, sets stricter limits for architectural coatings in its district, all in g/L less water and exempt compounds. Flats and nonflats are limited to 50 g/L (0.42 lb/gal); primers, sealers and undercoaters, industrial maintenance coatings and traffic coatings to 100 g/L (0.83 lb/gal); and wood coatings (varnish, sanding sealer, lacquer) to 275 g/L (2.29 lb/gal).

The bases differ, so a value never travels between jurisdictions. Under Directive 2004/42/EC Art. 2(5), VOC in paint means an organic compound with an initial boiling point of 250 °C (482 °F) or less at 101.3 kPa, and the content includes water, while the US federal AIM rule counts g/L less water and exempt compounds (40 CFR 59.406). Which additives count toward the figure in each jurisdiction is set out under VOC in paint.

How to Read a Published Starting Formulation#

A published starting formulation is read by its basis first, because the same number is a different dose on total paint, on pigment or as metal on binder solids. Heubach guide formulations list parts by weight per 100 parts of the mixed paint, which equals % on total formula, split into component A and component B for 2K paints.

The epoxy-polyamide primer No. 132-01 shows the split: component A (86.00) and component B (14.00) add up to 100 parts, at a PVC of 34.0 %, a PVC/CPVC ratio of 0.6 and 62.9 % solids. Patents state a dispersant on pigment instead: US 8,293,002 B2 uses 7.00 parts of a polyacrylate dispersant at 25 % active on 250 parts pigment, which is 0.70 % active on pigment and 0.67 % as supplied on total. Guide formulations are producer documents written for their own products, so each level in them is an example of that product, never the level of a paint type.

Formulation constants follow one standard: ASTM D5201-26 covers weight solids, volume solids, VOC and density, and the pigment volume concentration of a formula is the share of pigment and extender in the dry film volume. The volume balance behind the PVC/CPVC ratio of a published formulation is explained under pigment volume concentration (PVC) and CPVC.

Paint formulation calculations on this site run in 3 tools, listed below.

• Pigment volume concentration (PVC) calculator: PVC and PVC/CPVC from the pigment, extender and binder volumes of a formula.
• Paint VOC content calculator: VOC in g/L with and without water and exempt compounds.
• Paint formulation calculators: every calculator and the quote request on one page.

Where Formulation Pages Meet Raw Materials, Process, Defects and Tests#

Every formulation page draws on 6 other sections of the site: the formulation fundamentals, the raw-material groups, the defects that additives prevent, the test methods, the regulations and the substance pages. The 6 sections are listed below.

• Paint formulation fundamentals: raw materials, process, PVC, MFFT and dosage bases.
• Paint raw materials: binder, pigment, extender, solvent or water, and additives.
• Paint defects and the additives that prevent them: the defect, its cause and the additive fix.
• Paint test methods: how additive performance is measured.
• Paint additive regulations: VOC, biocides, CLP labels and restricted substances.
• Paint additive substances: CAS, function, level and regulatory status of each substance.