AshigrainColour print · Print film
Technicolor Dye Transfer (Process IV)
Three-colour dye transfer, the classic Technicolor print.
A labelled surrogate of three-colour dye transfer, rendered as the 1950s print step from a colour negative, with a faint key image of the green record. Original vs Ashigrain.
At a glance
- Introduced
- 1932
- Discontinued
- Process
- three separation records printed onto matrix film, developed to hardened gelatin reliefs, imbibed with cyan, magenta and yellow dyes and transferred in register onto a blank
- Maximum density
- ≈ 2.8
About the film
Technicolor's three-colour dye-transfer process, known as Process IV, was first shown in Disney's Flowers and Trees in 1932, and Becky Sharp (1935) was the first live-action feature made with it.
A beam-splitter camera exposed three black-and-white records; each was printed onto a matrix film whose gelatin relief took up dye and transferred it onto a blank film, the red record printing cyan, the green magenta and the blue yellow. Until the 1950s a faint black-and-white key image of the green record was printed on the blank first, to help perceived sharpness, and Ashigrain's model includes it. Film Atlas calls the system the industry standard, and Technicolor dominated colour film from the mid-1930s to the 1950s, with films such as A Star Is Born (1937), Gone with the Wind (1939), The Red Shoes (1948) and Singin' in the Rain (1952). Technicolor opened a British laboratory at Harmondsworth near London in 1936, and its dyes changed over time: during the war it used American dyes, and the British laboratory's dyes differed from Hollywood's. From the early 1950s Technicolor made its dye-transfer prints from Eastman Color negatives rather than three-strip records, the print step Ashigrain models. Film Atlas calls those prints colour-stable, unlike Eastman Color prints of the period. Dye-transfer printing from colour negatives continued until US Technicolor stopped it about 1975, and the British and Italian plants in 1978.
Sources for this history
- Three-Color Technicolor (Céline Ruivo), Film Atlas (FIAF / George Eastman Museum)
- Technicolor No. IV: Three-strip, Timeline of Historical Film Colors, University of Zurich
- The Technicolor Process of Three-Color Cinematography (J. A. Ball, J. SMPE 1935), American WideScreen Museum
- Technicolor prints from color negatives (Richard W. Haines), Film Atlas (FIAF / George Eastman Museum)
The look
Technicolor's dye-transfer prints took cyan, magenta and yellow dyes from three gelatin relief matrices onto a blank film, the industry standard from the mid-1930s. Ashigrain's version is a labelled surrogate, a model inspired by the print rather than a reproduction. It renders the print step from a colour negative.
Best for
- Golden-age Hollywood musicals and melodrama
- Saturated costume and set colour
- 1950s epics printed from colour negatives
Compare print films
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film. On this two-colour print (a labelled surrogate) every colour falls between blue-green and red-orange: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and which lights keep their hue.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film. On this blue-sensitive black-and-white print the colour negative turns grey: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how dark the reds and greens print.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film. On this blue-sensitive black-and-white print the colour negative turns grey: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how dark the red neon and skin print.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film. On this black-and-white print the colour negative turns grey: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the coloured lights and skin translate to grey.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film. On this blue-sensitive black-and-white print the colour negative turns grey: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the coloured lights and skin translate to grey.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film. On this two-colour print (a labelled surrogate) every colour falls between a blue and a red dye: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and which lights keep their hue.
The same Vision3 500T night frame on each print film: how deep the blacks go, how the highlights roll off and how the colour separates.
The same Kodak Vision3 500T night frame, printed on each film.
- Kodak Vision Premier Color Print Film 2393
- Eastman Color SP Print Film 5383
- Eastman Color Print Film 5384
- Fujifilm Eterna-CP 3521XD
- Du Pont Color Release Positive Type 275
- Fujifilm Eterna-CP 3523XD
- Kodak Vision Color Print Film 2383
- Fujifilm Eterna-CP 3513DI
- Eastman EXR Color Print Film 5386
- Eastman Color Print Film 5381 (1972)
- Eastman Color Print Film 5385
- Agfa CP30 Colour Print Film
- SuperCinecolor
- Cinecolor (two-colour)
- Gevacolor Positive 953
- Gevacolor Print 9.85
- Gevacolor Print 986
- Gevacolor Print 982
- Ferraniacolor Positive
- 3M Color Positive 650
- Fujicolor Positive F-CP 3510
- Fujicolor Positive F-CP 3519
- Fujifilm Eterna-CP 3512
- Eastman Color Print 5381 (1950)
- Eastman Fine Grain Release Positive 5302
- Ansco Color Print 848
- Kodak B&W Print Film 2302
- Svema TsP-11
- Svema MZ-3
- ORWO PF 2 Positive Print Film
- Technicolor Dye Transfer (1997 revival)
- Svema TsP-8R
- Shostka Colour Positive (1950s)
- Technicolor Dye Transfer (Process IV)
- Gasparcolor Print
- Trucolor Print (two-colour)
- Kodak Vision Color Teleprint Film 2395
Science & sources
A three-colour model inspired by the print, not a reproduction of Technicolor dye transfer, shown after Eastman Color Negative 5247. No curve, separation filter, matrix gamma or dye measurement exists, so every curve and dye shape is generated from named assumptions guided by Ball's 1935 description and archive sources; a faint key image of the green record is included.
Response curves and the evidence behind the model
Compare manufacturer data with Ashigrain’s response on the same axes. These curves show how the model is calibrated to its sources; they do not establish a match to photographed film.
Characteristic response
Model limits
These images show the film model in use. Spectral response, lighting and viewing conditions include approximations. Halation, bloom, grain size, weave and flicker are not fully measured for each film. The look of real film also depends on development and print timing.
- This is a three-colour model inspired by Technicolor dye-transfer prints, rather than a reproduction of the original process.
- No characteristic curve, separation filter, matrix gamma or dye spectrum of a Technicolor print exists in the sources. Every curve is generated from named assumptions, guided by Ball's 1935 system description and archive descriptions.
- The model renders the print step from a colour negative, as the matrix printer made it from the early 1950s; three-strip camera records are not modelled.
- The three record sensitivities, the single print curve shared by every record (matrix gamma 2.6) and the Gaussian transfer dyes are assumptions; the dye widths and strengths were chosen for the most neutral grey.
- The faint key image of the green record is modelled as a neutral silver density whose strength is assumed.
- The source gives no printer lamp or filter spectra. Their spectral response is approximated.
- The available sources do not measure veiling flare during projection. The model approximates its contribution to lifted blacks on screen, so the result is not a measured projection contrast.
Reciprocity: not modelled. Exposure time has no effect on this film.
Film guide: assumptions and practical choices
This preview combines the print film with the named camera negative. In this comparison, the print has no separate exposure index or measured grain response.
Sources
- Process: J. A. Ball, The Technicolor Process of Three-Color Cinematography (American WideScreen Museum transcription), widescreenmuseum.com/oldcolor/ball.htm as served 2026-10-28 (transcription; figures ballpic1a.gif, ballpic2.gif not registered), p. 1
- Reconstructed: J. A. Ball, The Technicolor Process of Three-Color Cinematography (American WideScreen Museum transcription), widescreenmuseum.com/oldcolor/ball.htm as served 2026-10-28 (transcription; figures ballpic1a.gif, ballpic2.gif not registered), p. 1