Colour reproduction in photography, print and film each solved a genuinely difficult technical problem in a different way and on a different timeline — practical colour photography and colour cinema both took decades longer to become mainstream than black-and-white versions of the same medium.
Early practical colour photography processes, including the Autochrome process introduced in the early 20th century, were significantly more complex and expensive than black-and-white photography, which is part of why colour took decades to become the default.
Modern use · early 20th century
The CMYK printing model (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) became the standard subtractive colour model for colour printing, distinct from the RGB additive model used for screens.
Modern use
Colour cinema existed in various experimental forms from the early 20th century, but only became the dominant standard for mainstream film production by the mid-20th century, well after colour photography was established.
Modern use · 20th century
The principle was settled early. In 1861 James Clerk Maxwell photographed a tartan ribbon three times, through red, green and blue filters, and projected the three slides back through the same filters to rebuild its colours. Everything afterwards was engineering: how to capture three records in one exposure, on one support, that an ordinary photographer could use. Screen processes put a mosaic of tiny coloured filters in front of a black-and-white emulsion and added light together. Tripack processes stacked three sensitive layers and formed dyes in each, subtracting from white. The second route was far harder chemically, which is why it arrived a generation later and then took over. 1
| When | Where | What happened | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1861 | — | Maxwell demonstrated three-colour photography with lantern slides of a tartan ribbon. | 1 |
| 1904 to 1907 | France | The Lumière brothers presented the autochrome to the French Academy of Science and by 1907 were producing plates commercially. | 1 |
| 24 November 1906 to 26 February 1909 | Britain | George Albert Smith patented Kinemacolor, Charles Urban launched it on 1 May 1908, and the first public screenings were held at the Palace Theatre of Varieties in London. | 2 |
| 1913 | Lyon, France | The Lumière factory was turning out 6,000 autochrome plates a day. | 1 |
| 1916 and 1932 | — | The first Technicolor process, in two colours, was followed sixteen years later by the three-colour version — the first full-colour process used successfully in cinemas. | 2 |
| 15 April 1935 | — | Kodachrome went on sale as 16mm cine film; 35mm film followed in America in 1936 and reached Britain in 1937. | 1 |
| 1936 | Germany | Agfa announced Agfacolor-Neu, a multi-layer film whose colour couplers were anchored in the emulsion, so that it could be processed by the user. | 1 |
| 1950 | — | Eastmancolor, a single-strip process, was introduced and went on to displace Technicolor's camera system. | 3 |
Claim: Colour photography was invented in the 1930s.
Evidence: Not supported. The principle was demonstrated in 1861 and a commercially successful colour plate was on sale from 1907. What the 1930s brought was colour film that was simple enough for mass use. Autochromes needed exposures about thirty times longer than ordinary plates, which kept them a specialist pursuit. 1
Historical claims above are scoped to a specific period, region or culture where relevant — none are presented as a single universal fact. See methodology.