What is Paint?

Paint is a mixture of a colorant in the form of a pigment suspended in a vehicle containing a binder that when applied to a surface forms a durable film that adheres to it. Paint is used for decorative and protective coatings for surfaces such as walls, floors, furniture, and vehicles.

Paint has been around for thousands of years, and it is thought that the first paintings were made by mixing ground pigments with gum Arabic and egg whites to create a sort of proto-paint that was applied to surfaces like crockery and pottery. The ancient Greeks, Romans and Egyptians experimented with a variety of pigments and vehicles to create a wide range of colors, including red and yellow ochres, arsenic sulfide yellow, and malachite green.

Modern industrial and household paints consist of four main ingredients: pigment, resin, solvent, and additives. Pigments give the paint its colour; resin holds all of the other ingredients together and helps it dry; solvent or "liquid" is the liquid medium that makes it easy to apply to a surface, and additives are chemicals that add specific performance characteristics such as stain resistance, fungicidal properties, and fast drying.

The process of making paint varies depending on the type of paint being produced, but all of the ingredients are mixed together and put into cans or tubes for sale. House painters often use pre-mixed paint, while artists prefer to buy the dry pigment and mix it themselves.