About Farbe und Lack

Farbe und Lack

Farbe und Lack is the leading German trade journal for the coatings industry, published by Vincentz Network of Hannover. Covering the paint and coatings, printing-ink, construction-chemistry, adhesive, and sealant industries, the monthly journal combines scientific depth with market intelligence: peer-level technical articles from leading experts alongside reporting on technology, markets, trends, and the industry's people. With a print run of around 2,500 copies, it reaches the decision-makers of a highly specialized, research-driven industry — the chemists and engineers whose formulations end up on cars, buildings, ships, and aircraft around the world.

Overview

Farbe und Lack is the flagship journal of the German-language coatings world — "die führende deutsche Fachzeitschrift für die Lack- und Farben-, Druckfarben-, Bauchemie-, Klebstoff- und Dichtmassenindustrie." Each issue carries trend-setting scientific contributions from leading experts as well as top information on technology and market, trends and facts. The ISSN 0014-7699 marks the print edition.

The readership is the coatings industry's professional elite: R&D chemists, formulators, production managers, technical directors, and the commercial leadership of paint and coatings manufacturers, raw-material suppliers, and the adjacent printing-ink, construction-chemical, adhesive, and sealant industries. The journal's self-description captures the compact: "Was die Branche bewegt, steht in Farbe und Lack — und wer dazu gehört, liest Farbe und Lack" (what moves the industry is in Farbe und Lack — and whoever belongs reads Farbe und Lack). The print run of approximately 2,500 copies reflects the industry's concentrated structure: a small number of large manufacturers and specialized suppliers, each employing hundreds of formulation chemists and application engineers. In such an industry, a 2,500-copy journal can reach nearly every relevant desk — the circulation is small because the industry is small, not because the journal is marginal. And in an industry where formulation knowledge is the competitive advantage, the journal's archive of technical articles is itself a research asset: decades of published coatings science, available through the e-journal and the digital platforms.

History

Farbe und Lack is published by Vincentz Network GmbH & Co. KG of Hannover, a specialist publishing house for the coatings industry whose program extends far beyond the journal: the "Farbe und Lack Edition" book series (including standard works such as the Lehrbuch der Lacktechnologie by Brock, Groteklaes, and Mischke, and reference works like Paolo Nanetti's Lack von A bis Z), the online portal farbeundlack.de, e-journals and e-books, and industry events. The journal is the centerpiece of this coatings-media ecosystem — the periodical heartbeat around which the books, databases, and events are organized.

The Vincentz coatings program has a long tradition in Hannover: the publishing house, based at Plathnerstraße 4c, 30175 Hannover, has served the German paint and coatings industry for generations, and Farbe und Lack has been its journalistic flagship throughout. The journal's longevity mirrors the industry's own history — from the early paint factories through the rise of synthetic resins, powder coatings, waterborne systems, and today's sustainability-driven formulation science, with its low-VOC systems, bio-based raw materials, and circular-economy imperatives. Through each technological transition, the journal has been the industry's forum for the underlying science: the place where a new resin chemistry is first presented to the German coatings community, where a regulatory change is translated into formulation consequences, and where the industry's research elite debate the future of their craft. Exact founding details are not publicly confirmed in the sources consulted.

Coverage and Content

The content mix balances science and market. Fachartikel (technical articles) form the main part of each issue: multi-page research and development contributions from the coatings field, but also topics from paint production and paint raw materials, mostly submitted by external specialists and editorially revised — a peer-review-like process that gives the journal its scientific credibility. Each issue treats one topic as a focus — powder coating, additives, waterborne coatings, and similar themes — providing the deep dive that the industry's specialists expect, while the news sections keep the generalist reader current.

The standing rubrics give the journal its industry-newspaper character: Lackmarkt (articles on the activities of well-known paint manufacturers — new plants, acquisitions — and interviews with paint manufacturers), Lieferantenmarkt (the same for raw-material suppliers), Rundruf (interviews posing three current questions to three executives or owners of different paint manufacturers — a format that captures the industry's mood in a single spread), Quer gelesen (short reports on published scientific papers from the coatings field), Verbände (current information from the coatings associations SVLFC, VILF, and VdL), and the people pages — Köpfe und Karrieren (formerly Akteure) with short items on prominent industry figures, and Lack und Leben (formerly Lack lebendig), feuilleton-style portraits of important industry personalities.

A distinctive feature is the job market: Farbe und Lack carries most of the advertisements for technical positions in the coatings industry and related sectors, making it the industry's career marketplace — the place where formulation chemists find their next position and where companies compete for the scarce specialists. The Lehrmaterial (teaching material) series — one-to-two-page educational features such as Gesellenstück (exercises for the paint-laboratory-technician apprenticeship) and Tadellos (root-cause analysis of known coating defects) — serves the industry's vocational training, embedding the journal in the education of the next generation of coatings professionals.

Organization and Ownership

Farbe und Lack is published by Vincentz Network GmbH & Co. KG, Hannover (Postfach 6247, 30062 Hannover; Plathnerstraße 4c, 30175 Hannover; buecher@farbeundlack.de for the book program). Vincentz is a specialist publisher whose coatings program — journal, books, digital products, events — makes it the German coatings industry's media house, a position built over generations of serving the paint and coatings trade from its Hannover base. The editor-in-chief is not publicly confirmed in the sources consulted.

The journal's economics combine subscriptions from the industry's companies, laboratories, and libraries with advertising from paint manufacturers and raw-material suppliers — an advertiser base of large chemical companies that values the journal's concentrated reach into formulation and R&D departments, where purchasing decisions for raw materials worth millions are prepared. The Farbe und Lack Edition book program and the digital products provide additional revenue streams, diversifying the title beyond the advertising cycle. Circulation figures beyond the stated print run and financial details are not publicly confirmed.

Digital Presence

The portal farbeundlack.de extends the journal online with news, the e-journal, and the digital editions. The "farbeundlack // kiosk app" offers the e-journal and e-books as an app for iPad and iPhone — "Formulierungsknowhow ohne Grenzen" (formulation know-how without borders) — giving subscribers mobile access to the journal and the book program, from the laboratory bench to the production floor. The shop (farbeundlack.de/shop) sells the books and digital products, with the contact points that the industry knows: buecher@farbeundlack.de and the Hannover offices.

The 2026 media rate card documents a professional digital advertising business: multiscreen display formats (billboard, wallpaper, halfpage, interscroller), native advertising, and outstream video across the homepage, section pages, and channel rotations — the standard toolkit of a B2B trade publisher monetizing a concentrated, high-value audience. The rotation models — homepage, section, segment, and channel rotation — let advertisers target precisely the formulation, production, or management audiences they need. For an industry where a single formulation decision can involve millions of euros, the journal's digital presence serves the same function as the print issue: delivering the scientific and market intelligence that the coatings industry's decision-makers need — "Wissen für die Branche" (knowledge for the industry), in the journal's own words.