Adding functionality to packaging materials is a key element to designing innovative packaging solutions. The ability to apply functional coatings to packaging materials is a key element to increasing their performance and creating innovative packaging solutions. Flexography, a cost-effective printing method commonly used to print information and graphics directly onto a wide variety of packaging substrates, show good potential for applying functional coatings. In this study, conventional clay-latex coating formulations containing approx. 1.3% silica nanoparticles was applied on a linerboard using a pilot flexographic printing web press. The performance of multilayered silica-based coatings was compared with conventional coatings containing talc and/or wax dispersion in terms of runnability and barrier performance. Coating grammage increased with increasing number of coating layers and a significant decrease in both the water vapor transport rate (WVTR) and the direct water uptake of water (Cobb120 wettability test) is observed for coatings containing silica particle. In general, silica-based coatings performed slightly better than talc-based coatings. Talc/wax-based coatings had the highest variation in surface roughness due to uneven distribution and variations of coating layers.