Pathécolor

Pathécolor, later renamed Pathéchrome, was an early mechanical stencil-based film tinting process for movies developed by Segundo de Chomón for Pathé in the early 20th century.

Each frame of an extra print of the black-and-white film to be colored was rear-projected onto a sheet of frosted glass, as in rotoscoping.

An operator used a blunt stylus to trace the outlines of areas of the projected image that were to be tinted one particular color.

This had to be done for each individual frame, and as many different stencil films had to be made as there were different colors to be added.

The Pathécolor stencil process should not be confused with the later Pathécolor, Pathé Color and Color by Pathé (sometimes without the acute accent) trade names seen in screen credits and advertising materials.