The paint and coatings industry is highly diverse and complex. Architectural coatings protect houses and buildings; product finishes are applied to furniture and fixtures, prefinished flooring and automobiles; special purpose coatings are used for things like pipelines, aircraft, and ships. Oleochemicals have been an important contributor to paint and coatings technology beginning centuries ago with the use of oils as a paint binder, then as oleoresinous varnishes and, in the recent century, as a key ingredient in alkyd resins – polyesters containing oils or fatty acids. A distinct property that unsaturated “drying oils” brings to paint and coatings systems is their ability to undergo autoxidation leading to the formation of a coherent and solid film. While technical developments in the past 100 years have led to advanced coatings resin technologies such as amino resins, acrylics, synthetic latexes, polyurethanes, and epoxy resins, alkyd resins continue to be the second most used resin technology due to their versatility, ease of synthesis and ease of use. By varying the composition and raw materials used, alkyds can be tailored for a broad range of applications. Alkyds can also be adapted to be used in high solids coatings as well as in waterborne systems. The volume of alkyd resins used worldwide is expected to grow over the next decade.