Agfa-Ansco Photographic Paper Info

Agfa-Ansco products are variously branded with either, or both, names, so any paper that has any variation of the Agfa-Ansco brand will wind up here. For a history of Agfa and Ansco, check out their Camerapedia pages.

I’ve only had the good fortune to collect two packages of Agfa-Ansco paper. One is a nearly empty pack of Agfa Brovira, probably circa the 1970s, and the other is a pack of Agfa Cykon that expired in 1940. The following information comes from the “Photo Lab Index” book by Henry M. Lester. I suspect that the descriptions of the papers in the book is cribbed straight from press releases by the company, as the descriptions of the Ansco papers in the book are much more… florid than the Kodak paper descriptions. I tried to pare down the information to what is most essential.

As of the publication (early 1950s) of the “Photo Lab Index,” Agfa-Ansco papers were available in the following surfaces:

Medium rough
Glossy (GL)
Kashmir (K) – This was described as having a “pebbled effect and surface sheen”
Satex (S) – “A smooth, natural-white, double-weight stock with moderate luster”
Cyltex (CX) – Medium rough surface with some sheen and texture
Smooth Semi-Matte (Velvet) (V)
Silk (Y) – a silk-like, glistening texture with a high sheen
Fine Grain, Medium Luster (X)
Brilliant – finely stippled paper with a high surface luster

Convira – Chloride based contact printing paper with a blue-black tone.

Cykon – Warm toned contact printing paper. Recommended safelight: yellow (specifically, Agfa Safelight Filter No. 105). Recommended developer: Agfa 135 (for warm black tones), Agfa 125 (for slightly colder tones), or Agfa 115 (for very warm brown tones).

Brovira – High speed projection paper with a rich black tone.

Cykora – Moderately high speed enlarging paper with warm black tones. “Although a new paper, Cykora has already established a reputation for its versatility in yielding striking red, blue, and sepia tones in various toning solutions.”

Indiatone – Projection paper with warm olive tones. “The new Indatone paper is versatile in its response to special developers, and superior in its toning qualities. It gives rich sepia tones with Selenium toner, ranging to reddish-sepia and yellowish-sepia, dependent on treatment.”

Speedex – Fast chloride paper with a blue-black tone. “Speedex is designed for high-powered, optical printers maked fixed ratio enlargements.”

Monodex – Glossy paper similar to Speedex.

Proof – A printing-out paper for professional photographers.

Projection Proof – Designed especially for use in making projected black and white proofs.Neutral black tone with a slightly roughened finish.

Reflex – “This special purpose paper gives economical copies of written or printed material quickly and conveniently by the reflex contact printing method. No bulky cameras, lights, or photographic darkroom are required.”

The safelight info for the above papers is a little sketchy. The Photo Lab Index recommends yellow (Ansco A-5) safelights for chloride paper. For Chloro-Bromide and Bromide papers, it seems to recommend anything from a red or dark orange filter to a yellowish-greenish filter (Ansco A-6).