Cibachrome 1963, after 1991 renamed Ilfochrome

“The materials and processes described thus far have been either unsuccessful or short-lived for one reason or another; the trend changed with the launch of Cibachrome in the 1960s. The product and its subsequent forms dominated the silver dye-bleach market until it was discontinued in 2012. During the 1950s, Ciba, the Swiss dyestuff and pharmaceutical company, initiated research on the photographic dye destruction process. In 1963 the company entered an agreement with Ilford to freely exchange photographic research information and to produce and market Ciba-Ilford products (Monopolies Commission 1966; Ilford 2010). That same year, Ciba exhibited examples of Cilchrome-Print and Cilcolor-Print at Photokina in Cologne.²³ Shortly after the fair, the company introduced a printing service for the amateur in Switzerland, similar to the one Ilford had provided in England with its Ilford Colour Print. The service was only available for a short time as the company decided to focus on professional and industrial use (Coote 1993: 184).²⁴ In 1967 Ciba acquired Ilford, and Cibachrome paper was launched commercially the same year (Fig. 6.8). The support of the printing material was pigmented cellulose triacetate; the use of paper as a support was impossible because one of the processing bleaches contained concentrated hydrochloric acid, which would have destroyed it.²⁵ Processing took forty-seven minutes at 75°F (23°C) and consisted of ten steps (six solutions, including separate dye and silver bleaches, and four washes). In 1969 Cibachrome Transparent CCT was introduced to supply the demand for large commercial backlit transparencies. At that time, all other nonassembly color printing materials were based on chromogenic development and yielded dyes that were notoriously unstable to light. The azo dyestuffs developed by Ciba research were inherently more stable and provided a lightfastness never achieved before with backlit transparencies. Besides, Cibachrome offered many advantages over other printing materials then available, including true black colors, extreme sharpness, and dimensional stability.²⁶ It was, however, more expensive than conventional dye coupling color printing and demanded very long exposure times.”

(Pénichon, Sylvie (2013): Twentieth Century Colour Photographs. The Complete Guide to Processes, Identification & Preservation. London, Los Angeles: Thames & Hudson, on pp. 216–217.)