This book has emerged out of our long-time research interests on the
topic of latex film formation. Over the years we have built up a
repertoire of slides used in conference presentations, short courses and
tutorials on the topic. The story presented in this book has thereby
taken shape as it has been told and re-told to a mix of academic and
industrial audiences. The book presents a wide body of work accumulated
by the polymer colloids community over the past five decades, but the
selection of examples has been flavoured by our particular experimental
interests and development of mathematical models. We intend the book to
be a starting point for academic and industrial scientists beginning
research on latex film formation. The emphasis is on fundam- tal
mechanisms, however, and not on applications nor on specific effects of
formu- tions. We hope that the book consolidates the understanding that
has been achieved to-date in the literature in a more comprehensive way
than is possible in a review article. We trust that the reader will
appreciate the fascination of the topic.