The art of sound pictures (1930)

2 54 the art of sound PICTURES This final process of printing the dye images in color on a single film is called the transfer, or imbibition, process. The word “imbibition” refers to the property of the gelatine on the fresh film, which imbibes or absorbs the dye from the dyed film. This process is virtually the same as an ordinary lithographing procedure. The final film print now contains a colored picture, the combination of red and green pictures giving a color mixture which approximates the original or natural colors of the object photographed. One tremendous advantage of this process is the fact that no new attachment or complicated device need be / used on the projection machine. The picture prints contain their own colors and need only be run through an ordinary projector to give colored pictures on the screen. The disadvantages of the process lie in the possible irregularities of color saturation due to slightly different lengths of time during which the film is left in the dye bath; the tendency toward “bleeding” of the colors during the imbibition process; and the fact that some natural colors can never be reproduced with a two-color mixing process. The bleeding, as it is called, results from the fact that the gelatine on the fresh film tends to absorb dyes, not only in sharp outline of the images actually appearing on the film, but also with a certain spread from these sharp outlines. This is very similar to the way in which ink frequently spreads on cheap newspaper stock, or in an extreme way on blotting paper. This bleeding, or spread of the dye, tends to make the outline of colored objects somewhat blurred and hazy on the final film. The colors which cannot be obtained by a color process