Paper (or board) coated on one side or both sides with a mixture of china clay, latex and other loadings to fill up surface pips and improve the printing surface.
Traditionally the process was carried out away from the paper machine (off machine) but now in increasingly carried out at greater speed on the paper machine (machine coated).
There are a variety of coating methods, the most common machine coating method being roll coating. Off machines processes include blade coating, air knife coating, the traditional brush coating or combinations of these types.
A very high quality form of off machine coating is cast coating.