A solution-based fabrication of flexible and light-weight light-emitting devices on paper substrates is reported. Two different types of paper substrates are coated with a surface-emitting light-emitting electrochemical cell (LEC) device: a multilayer-coated specialty paper with an intermediate surface roughness of 0.4 m and a low-end and low-cost copy paper with a large surface roughness of 5 m. The entire device fabrication is executed using a handheld airbrush, and it is notable that all of the constituent layers are deposited from solution under ambient air. The top-emitting paper-LECs are highly flexible, and display a uniform light emission with a luminance of 200 cd m(-2) at a current conversion efficacy of 1.4 cd A(-1).