The worlds largest collection of photochrom prints of the Central Library of Zurich

Top-quality colour lithographic images produced from black-and-white photographic negatives, a technology which reached its zenith before the First World War. The process was invented in the 1880s by Hans Jakob Schmid (1856–1924), an employee of the Swiss company Orell Gessner Füssli—a printing firm whose history began in the 16th century. Füssli founded the stock company Photochrom Zürich (later Photoglob Zürich AG) as the business vehicle for the commercial exploitation of the process and both Füssli and Photoglob continue to exist today.