Short answer
From 1950, most colour films were shot and printed on chromogenic Eastman Color stock, whose cyan and yellow dyes were unstable at room temperature. As those two dyes faded, prints and negatives drifted towards magenta, giving the 'pink' look of faded films from the 1950s to the early 1980s. Pressure from filmmakers led Kodak in 1981 to replace its print films with a stock about ten times more stable, and cold storage is now the standard remedy.
Kodak introduced Eastman Color negative and print films in 1950. Unlike the Technicolor dye-imbibition process, which printed stable dyes mechanically, Eastman Color was a single-strip chromogenic system in which dyes formed from couplers during processing. It was cheaper and easier and was sold under many studio names, and within a few years it displaced Technicolor. But the dye-stability problems of early Kodak colour materials were carried into the motion picture films. Negatives, interpositives and release prints all used chromogenic dyes, so the originals, the intermediates and the copies shown in cinemas were all at risk — and most were kept at ordinary room temperature, which is what drives dark fading.
The National Film Preservation Foundation describes the characteristic purplish cast of many older films as caused by the rapid fading of cyan and yellow image dyes; the magenta dye was comparatively stable, so it is what remains. Faded negatives present a further problem: because the three dye images fade at different rates, their contrasts become unbalanced, and a print made from a faded negative can be rebalanced for mid-tones only at the cost of off-coloured shadows and highlights. Wilhelm's account quotes a 1978 Film Comment article describing the sunny fields of Oklahoma! turned 'strident pink', and Martin Scorsese asking how the industry could allow 2001: A Space Odyssey 'to fade to magenta'.
Scorsese led an industry campaign pressing Kodak to improve stability and publish data. After meeting his group in July 1980, Kodak announced it would make stability data public, and in October 1981 it replaced its existing motion picture print films with Eastman Color Print Film 5384 (35 mm) and 7384 (16 mm), which Wilhelm reports as about ten times more stable, supplied at no extra cost. Fuji soon followed. Modern films are far more stable still, but the NFPF notes that even today's films will show significant fading in about 40 years at room conditions — well within the working life of an archive.
The remedy for dye fading is temperature. The NFPF states that cold storage is the only way to guarantee centuries of useful life for colour films, and the Image Permanence Institute's FilmCare guidance ranks storage into room, cool, cold and frozen categories, with any average temperature at or below 0 °C counting as frozen and the colder the better. Wilhelm recommended −18 °C and 30% RH for valuable colour film and noted that films already showing fading, and nearly all colour stock made before 1982–86, should go into cold storage first. Restoration now largely happens digitally: scanning each faded dye layer and rebalancing colour can recover images that photochemical printing could not.
| Date | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1950 | Kodak introduces Eastman Color negative and print films | Wilhelm; Eastmancolor article |
| 1950s–1970s | Cyan and yellow dyes fade at room temperature; films drift to magenta | NFPF; Wilhelm |
| 1978 | Film Comment article describes widespread colour fading | Wilhelm |
| July 1980 | Scorsese and colleagues meet Kodak; Kodak agrees to publish stability data | Wilhelm |
| October 1981 | Kodak switches to print films 5384/7384, about ten times more stable | Wilhelm |
| Today | Modern films still fade significantly in about 40 years at room conditions | NFPF |
Why: The cyan and yellow dyes have faded, leaving mostly magenta.
Fix: Have it scanned by a film lab that can rebalance the dye layers digitally; store the original cold and dry.
Why: Memory is often of faded release prints; restorers work from the best surviving elements and references.
Fix: Treat restorations as informed reconstructions and read the restorer's notes on sources.
Each statement is labelled by kind — established fact, a standard’s requirement, observed market data, a convention, or Colourwise’s own interpretation or analysis — with the strength of the evidence behind it.
FactStrong evidence
Many older colour films have a purplish cast caused by rapid fading of the cyan and yellow image dyes; negatives, interpositives and prints are affected in the same way.
Source: Color Dye Fading
FactStrong evidence
Modern colour films are more stable than earlier ones, but significant fading will still occur in about 40 years at room conditions; cold storage is the only way to guarantee centuries of useful life.
Source: Color Dye Fading
FactModerate evidence
In October 1981 Kodak replaced its motion picture colour print films with Eastman Color Print Film 5384 and 7384, reported to be about ten times more stable than the films they replaced.
FactModerate evidence
Eastmancolor, introduced in 1950, was one of the first widely successful single-strip colour processes and eventually displaced Technicolor.
Source: Eastmancolor
ConventionStrong evidence
IPI's film storage guidance groups conditions into ROOM, COOL, COLD and FROZEN, treating any average temperature at or below 0 °C as frozen and the effect of temperature on decay as a continuum.
Reviewed 29 September 2026. Colourwise summarises its sources in its own words and does not reproduce standards text or proprietary colour data. Spotted an error? Tell us.