polymer film after application and heat pressure treatment of the film forming polymer the web 66 may pass through another optional dryer 82 and to the first coater 84 a the first coater 84 a may be a blade coater or the like and may apply a conventional basecoat e g as a second basecoat onto the starch coated web 66 an optional dryer 86 a may dry at least partially the basecoat prior to application of an optional topcoat at the second coater 88 a dryer 90 a may dry the topcoat the opposite side of the sheet may then be coated via coater 84 b which may be a blade coater or the like and may apply conventional basecoat onto web 66 an optional dryer 86 b may at least partially dry the basecoat prior to application of an optional topcoat at the next coater 88 b another optional dryer 90 b may finish drying before the web 66 proceeds to the optional gloss calender 92 and finished product is rolled onto a reel 94 the gloss calender 92 may be a soft nip calender a hard nip calender or may be omitted or bypassed at this point those skilled in the art will appreciate that the basecoats 14 a 14 b topcoats 16 a 16 b and associated application techniques disclosed above may substantially increase the smoothness of the resulting paper or paperboard 10 without substantially increasing the density of the paper or paperboard 10 i e the caliper thickness of the fiber substrate 12 may be substantially maintained throughout the coating process fig6 and 7 demonstrate the.