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Coating is a more general term of surface treatment by covering. Common coating processes include Chemical vapor deposition, Physical vapor deposition, Chemical and electrochemical techniques such as Anodizing and Plasma electrolytic oxidation, Spraying, Optical coating, and Roll-to-roll coatings. Painting is usually limited to spraying or brush-on coating for appearance or corrosion resistance. But it is sometimes interchanged with coating loosely.
Plating is more specific on employing the conductivity to fuse a thin film of metal covering on the substrate. The covering material of plating can be Gold, Silver, Rhodium, Chrome, Zinc, Tin, Cadmium, Nickel, and other Metal Alloys such as Tungsten carbide, silicon carbide, chromium carbide, and aluminum oxide. The substrates are usually metals but they can also be plastics or ceramics. Common plating processes include Electroplating: more common, an ionic metal is supplied with electrons to form a non-ionic coating on a substrate and Electroless plating: plating without the use of external electrical power.