Indeed, there is scarcely anything to show that they are paint makers.

His father, now retired, worked in Montvale, N.J., as the vice president of the Eastern division of Benjamin Moore, the paint maker.

Sherwin-Williams, America's largest paint maker, and the Valspar Corporation, the American industrial coating producer, may also be takeover targets for Akzo, analysts said.

Moreover, as the Federal Government increases environmental restrictions on paint makers, many small, inefficient paint makers have been unable to compete, leading to industry consolidation.

I.C.I. bought Grow, a paint maker, after it outbid Sherwin-Williams with a $350 million offer.

Her father is the president and chief executive of Benjamin Moore & Company, the paint maker in Montvale, N.J.

The paint makers look like astronauts when they put on their Tyvek suits and respirators to work with the dry pigments in a sealed room.

Matthew Kelly, 29, the senior paint maker, has been working at R&F since the spring of 2002.

Now some paint makers are coming closer to matching nature's palette with a synthetic iridescence.

Her father is the owner and president of the Coatings Lab, a paint maker in Westbrook, Me.