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Banner image

 

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CAPTION: Early imbibition machine design, drawn by E. A. Gallison, May 20, 1919. George Eastman House.

 

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CAPTION: The pinbelt was a crucial part of the dye-transfer process, holding the blank film and the matrices in exact register as the dyes transferred. The belt formed a continuously moving 240-foot loop that held the films in contact for two minutes. The blank film would remain on the pinbelt for three passes, as the cyan, yellow, and magenta dyes were separately transferred. Each matrix relief film was then washed and re-dyed, and could be reused up to fifty times. George Eastman House.

 

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CAPTION: The matrix film consisted of a hardened gelatin relief image which was used to press dyes onto the blank film. It could be reused up to fifty times to efficiently  make multiple prints at increased volume. Courtesy of Seaver Center for Western History Research.

 

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CAPTION: The pinbelt, blank, and matrix converged in the roll tank. They were pressed tightly together between rollers while being submerged in water, which encouraged the absorption of the dye in the blank film from the matrix.

 

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CAPTION: The cyan, yellow and magenta dyes used in the dye-transfer process were each solutions made up of multiple dyes. Technicolor tested thousands of commercially available dyes over the years to find those with the best printing properties. George Eastman House.

 

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CAPTION: Dye-transfer print from separation negatives. Reproduced from Technicolor News and Views, April 1955. George Eastman House.

 

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CAPTION: Dye-transfer printing equipment in operation in the 1960s???

 

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CAPTION: Jaws (1975) was one of the final films printed in the dye-transfer process in the United States. George Eastman House.