When a thin film of wet paint or coating is dried on a substrate, evaporation of the solvent concentrates the particles into a closed packed array. Further evaporation generates a compressive capillary force on the particle network. The film generally binds to the substrate and resists deformation in the transverse direction giving rise to transverse tensile stresses. If the particles are soft, they deform to close the pores but in case of hard particles the film cracks to release the stresses. Though cracking has been investigated on various systems such as wet clays, ceramic films, latex and model colloidal dispersions, it is only recently that a fundamental understanding of the cracking mechanism is beginning to emerge. In the present investigation, we identify two distinct regimes for obtaining crack free films. The first corresponds to soft particles that completely deform to give impermeable crack free films. The second regime is applicable for films containing hard particles where the existence of a maximum attainable capillary pressure limits the deformation and leads to porous crack free films. The measured critical heights for the latter regime over four orders in shear modulus and an order in particle size are in remarkable agreement with the theoretical predictions. We anticipate our results to not only form the basis for design of coating formulations for the paints, coatings and ceramics industry but also assist in the production of crack free photonic band gap crystals.