Figure 7 shows the strip of coated paper before and after the pick test. The appearance of pink color at all pick velocities shows that the second coat had low strength and that failure occurs at the interface between the two layers. The two-layers system of oppositely charged coating formulations at 3, 5, 7, and 10 pph of SB latex showed pick velocities in the range of 0.1–0.2 m/s regardless of using an anionic or cationic for- mulation for the first layer. These results of two-layer system showed an overall reduction in the coating strength when com- pared to a one-layer system. The two layer-by-layer coatings is lower in pick strength, compared to the values of 2.8 ± 0.1 and 2.6 ± 0.27 m/s obtained at 10 pph coatings prepared using a single layer of cationic and anionic formulations, respectively, at a similar coat weight and SB latex content.