In 1998 some 300 million tons of paper and board were produced. The average composition was 89% fiber, 8% filler and 3% chemicals. Half of the chemicals used were starches (4.5 million tons). The starch content of coated papers generally is well over 1.5%. Starch is a green, renewable, environmentally friendly and economical chemical, which is mainly used to improve dry-strength properties of paper. Practical examples of the mentioned aspects of the use of starch during production of coated paper will be presented, showing the final strength to be dependent on wet-end starch, surface starch and coating starch.