Dye destruction or dye bleach is a

photographic printing Photographic printing is the process of producing a final image on paper for viewing, using chemically sensitized paper. The paper is exposed to a photographic negative, a positive transparency (or ''slide''), or a digital image file projected ...

process, in which dyes embedded in the paper are bleached (destroyed) in processing. Because the dyes are fully formed in the paper prior to processing, they may be formulated with few constraints, compared to the complex

dye couplers Dye coupler is present in chromogenic film and paper used in photography, primarily color photography. When a color developer reduces ionized (exposed) silver halide crystals, the developer is oxidized, and the oxidized molecules react with dye ...

that must react in

chromogenic In chemistry, the term chromogen refers to a colourless (or faintly coloured) chemical compound that can be converted by chemical reaction into a compound which can be described as "coloured". There is no universally agreed definition of the term. ...

processing. This method has allowed the use of richly colored, highly stable dyes. It is a reversal process, meaning that it is used in printing transparencies (diapositives).

Ilfochrome Ilfochrome (also commonly known as Cibachrome) is a dye destruction positive-to-positive photographic process used for the reproduction of film transparencies on photographic paper. The prints are made on a dimensionally stable polyester base as o ...

(originally Cibachrome) is currently the only widely available dye destruction process, and is known for its intense colors and archival qualities. Older dye destruction processes included

Utocolor Utocolor or Uto paper was a light-sensitive paper for color photography manufactured by Dr. J.H. Smith of Zurich, Switzerland and available by early 1907. Overview Improved versions appeared in later years. It used the direct bleach-out method of ...

(early 1900s) and

Gasparcolor Gasparcolor was a color motion picture film system, developed in Berlin in 1933 by the Hungarian chemist Dr. Béla Gáspár ( Oraviczbánya, Transylvania 1898-1973). It used a subtractive 3-color process on a single film strip, one of the earli ...

(1930s). Plastic base supports have a "high gloss surface sheen".

References

Photographic processes {{photo-stub