Effect coatings have the unique property of large change of appearance under different viewing conditions. This results in quality control problems of related products. In this letter, samples of metallic panels with effect coatings are visually assessed and measured. Based on experimental results, we propose formulae to predict precisely the total differences of effective samples in terms of variations in color, coarseness, and glint. Under diffused illumination, the total difference formula includes color difference and coarseness difference. Under directional illumination, the total difference formula includes color difference and glint difference.