The term “paint” had a simple definition before about 1960. It was defined as a
liquid containing a binder (also called resin, vehicle or polymer), solvent, additives
and possibly pigment, as shown in Figure 3-1. The binder was thought of as the
film-former. The solvent was considered a means of giving the binder the desired
viscosity for application. Additives provided certain unique characteristics for a
particular paint. The pigment (if present) supplied color and film strengthening.