The local surface strength variation of coated papers were measured at various speeds on a number of coated paper samples to study the effects of speed and ink tack on coating pick. Coating pick phenomenon is observed in an ink transfer variation curve as a decrease in the slope of the curve. On the other hand, it causes an actual decrease in net ink transfer to paper with an increase in speed. The effect of speed on coating pick depends on ink tack, ink film thickness and surface properties of coating layer formation of paper. A novel device to measure the surface strength can rate the coating paper in a different order. Comparison are made between dry test of coating paper pick and wet coating pick test of printing in IGT printability tester. Coating formulation is the main key to prevent from coating pick. The binder level increases, the coating pick and the slop decrease. The piling on blanket in printing is a problem when the coating pick is occur on a local area rather than average surface strength of coated papers.