Solvents control many application and appearance properties of coatings, including binder solubility and miscibility, dispersion stability, application viscosity, dryig time and film leveling. An overview of recent literature concerning solvent formulation addresses binder solubility, including polymer solution phase behavior, solubility parameters, and Hansen solubility parameters; solvent evaporation; solvent properties, including flash point surface tension and viscosity; and formulating methodology, including establishing polymer solubility and miscibility targets, specifying theevaporation profile and other properties of the solvent blend, formulating solvent blends that meet polymer solubility and other requirements, and testing formulations experimentally to confirm predicted results. A practical approzch for helping formulators overcome the complexity of solvent formulation is to use mathematical models that predict blend properties as a function of coating composition. 49 refs.