State of RA-4 printing

Kotobukicat · Nov 22, 2025

Hi Again!

When I was a kid, I learned my BW chops in high school. I shot I don't know how many rolls of Plus X and Tri-X (the real Tri-X) I exposed, developed and printed. I had my own B&W printer even then. My high school teacher (long passed) worked with me both during the school year and in the summer. I was allowed to use the darkroom at school any time my teacher was there. Unfortunately, I never got a good grip on Pan-X. Maybe, I should say I never felt comfortable with it.

Then for my sixteenth birthday, my grandmother who came from old General Motors money, bought me a color enlarger. I was in heaven. Of course it took a while to get the motions down right. I was used to working with a red safelight once the film was in a tank. Not for color.

In my late teens early twenties, I discovered Ciba. It was the most wonderful thing to make images with. Color negative printing sort of took a back seat. If I wanted a color print in a hurry, I took the negative to a lab and had one made. I worked all summer to make enough money not for a Nikon, rather a Jobo.

So with that bit of rambling behind us, I come to the point of this post. I quit color enlarging shortly after Ciba died. (And to think my first B&W print was on fiber paper...) I have continuously been making B&W prints, but not very often. I simply put the dust cover over the color enlarger and grew old. Early this week, I uncovered the color unit, cleaned it and read the manual cover to cover, twice. I remember the steps... temperatures and times are very important. Nothing new here.

I want to start making color images again. I turned on my old (analog) color analyzer and my God, it works! I am interested in analog process here, not digital. My question is thus: what is the state of RA-4 process? What papers are available and what chemistry is considered the "good stuff"? When I searched for "Color photographic printing paper", I got results out the smokestack for printing paper made for digital printers, not photosensitive color enlargement paper. What is the correct search terms? Is it even being made? Or is it too gone the way of the Ciba?

Any way, I am at the moment not looking to get into digital image making. I do not want to spend the multi tens of thousands necessary to get a decent scanner, software and printer. I want to make images the old fashioned way (again).

Thank you all very much in advance for humoring and old film cat.

Best,

Joe