Kodalith AB (Kodak D-85b) Recipe

AndreDjanikian77 · Jan 4, 2025

Hi everyone,

I’m working on a specific project where I plan to develop Arista Ortho Litho Film 3.0 to achieve the highest possible contrast. Since I live in Brazil, it's not easy to find ready-to-use supplies for film development or darkroom work.

I've been researching ways to prepare Kodalith Developer, but I can’t seem to find much information beyond the formula on Digital Truth. I was wondering if anyone here has ever made this chemical and could share insights or knows of other sources where I could read and learn more about this developer.

I also found a formula in the 4th edition of The Darkroom Cookbook, but it’s not divided into the A and B components, which would cause it to oxidize too quickly.

I’m particularly confused about the dilution ratio mentioned in the Digital Truth formula—4 parts A to 1 part B.

If anyone has more information, I’d really appreciate it!

koraks · Jan 4, 2025

Welcome to Photrio!
The D-85 formula is also listed on this page: https://unblinkingeye.com/Articles/LithDev/lithdev.html
I have some doubts about the formula for part B as I would have expected a strong alkali to be present in there; something like sodium hydroxide. Perhaps @Ian Grant could comment; he has extensive knowledge of the Kodak formulae.

From the page I linked to I have used Kodak D-9 for lith printing (so a different application from yours). That's a developer that works well and both concentrates keep reasonably well; it helps if part A is sealed from any oxygen, as it will eventually oxidize.

I think for your application, it's mostly a matter of just giving it a try and see what happens. For what purpose do you need the highest possible contrast? Just curious!

Don_ih · Jan 4, 2025

The formula for Ansco 81 on the page linked by @koraks should give highest contrast on lith film (but would probably not be a good "lith" paper printing formula) due to it's high amount of hydroquinone, bromide, and sodium carbonate. I think I had a small bottle of it for around a year that was still good after several uses (I specifically mixed it up to make a mask for putting words on postcards).

It's virtually impossible to get paraformaldahyde here. It may or may not be easy to get it in Brazil. That limits the formulas I can try.

You can also consider adding a small amount of sodium thiosulfate to a formula like Ansco 81 to boost contrast. The most dense parts will still develop to be most dense but the thiosulfate may make the least dense parts more clear. It may impact the life of the developer, though.

Dwayne Martin · Jan 4, 2025

You might consider simply looking for new old stock on eBay. I lith print almost daily with Kodalith Super Rt exclusively, and have been for thousands of prints now.
I too am curious why you need the highest possible contrast?

Rudeofus · Jan 4, 2025

koraks said:
I have some doubts about the formula for part B as I would have expected a strong alkali to be present in there; something like sodium hydroxide.

If you mix Formaldehyde (or a precursor) with Sodium Sulfite, Formalin-Bisulfite Adduct will be formed, which leaves behind essentially Sodium Hydroxide. This will provide you with all the alkali you ever need in this developer ;-)

Nicholas Lindan · Jan 4, 2025

There is a note at the bottom of the Unblinking Eye web page:

"...Handle [formaldehyde] with adequate ventilation, or substitute acetone."

Any comments?

I've used one of formaldehyde-free formulas for lith film and they work adequately.

Don_ih · Jan 4, 2025

Nicholas Lindan said:
There is a note at the bottom of the Unblinking Eye web page:

"...Handle [formaldehyde] with adequate ventilation, or substitute acetone."

Any comments?

I've used one of formaldehyde-free formulas for lith film and they work adequately.

I didn't have luck making a lith print developer using acetone. I do know that acetone + sodium sulfite makes a fairly strong alkaline (don't know what it is - I only know from a ph meter). So I think it could make a decent high-contrast developer. Oddly, though, I only use it in a moderate-contrast developer (Bishops).

koraks · Jan 5, 2025

Rudeofus said:
If you mix Formaldehyde (or a precursor) with Sodium Sulfite, Formalin-Bisulfite Adduct will be formed, which leaves behind essentially Sodium Hydroxide. This will provide you with all the alkali you ever need in this developer ;-)

Thanks, I knew it had to be something involving the paraformaldehyde, but I never seem to remember the details.

Nicholas Lindan said:
I've used one of formaldehyde-free formulas for lith film and they work adequately.

Same here...

Rudeofus · Jan 6, 2025

Nicholas Lindan said:
There is a note at the bottom of the Unblinking Eye web page:

"...Handle [formaldehyde] with adequate ventilation, or substitute acetone."

Any comments?

I've used one of formaldehyde-free formulas for lith film and they work adequately.

Formaldehyde was heavily used in medical research, so people were exposed to high concentrations of it for prolonged times. Those people then showed higher rates of some specific cancer, which earned Formaldehyde the title carcinogen and the warning labels you mentioned. Please also note, that people running E-6 development machines 8/5 were exposed to some levels of Formaldehyde and never reported such issues.

Formulas for lith developers sans Formaldehyde were posted here on photrio a few years ago.

AndreDjanikian77 · Jan 6, 2025

Good afternoon, everyone! Thanks so much for the responses and ideas!

I mentioned that I needed maximum contrast, and here’s the reason: I’m a big fan of punk rock, and my research is focused on processes from the era when everything was done in darkrooms. My goal is to create an internegative and, from that, develop a screen-printing matrix. That’s why achieving maximum density during the development process is so important.

I’m sharing an example of The Clash album cover art—it’s the kind of aesthetic I’m aiming for:

https://vinyldistractions.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/IMG_1553-scaled.jpg

Regarding paraformaldehyde, it’s easily accessible here in Brazil, so I won’t have any trouble producing my own chemicals.

If anyone has more details about the Kodalith AB formula, I’d be super grateful!

Cheers!

koraks · Jan 6, 2025

Wow, interesting! I think you're on the right track with the film you're using. In terms of developer, I think @Don_ih's suggestion to add a silver solvent (thiosulfate for instance) to the developer is interesting. You may still end up having to go through two consecutive high-contrast generations of the same image to get the result you're after.

Dali · Jan 6, 2025

Nicholas Lindan said:
I've used one of formaldehyde-free formulas for lith film and they work adequately.

Can you please share the formaldehyde-free formula?

Don_ih · Jan 6, 2025

You make a positive to make a screenprint screen. The screen is itself a negative.

Stronger paper developer is possibly good enough to get a dense enough positive for making a screenprint screen. I made a fair number of them - some from lith film. I wanted to get into halftone but never got very far.

Nicholas Lindan · Jan 6, 2025

Dali said:
Can you please share the formaldehyde-free formula?

Look at the unblinkingeye page referenced in #2, above.

Kodalith AB (Kodak D-85b) Recipe

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