In this example, the layering of separate electroplates is clearly visible: one with blue ink, one with yellow and a third with red.
In the 1860s and 1870s, the use of color in dime novels, and on some story paper wrappers, was limited to printing on brightly colored paper and using different colored inks for printing. These early attempts at introducing color did not involve complicated color combinations.
Chromoxylography is one of the early methods developed for multi-color printing. This process could be used with relief printing--both with wood engravings and line blocks. Chromoxylography uses a combination of primary colors (red, yellow and blue) to create a range of colors on the illustration. Multiple electroplates of engravings are made, each inked with a separate color that effectively adds tint to a specific area. The color is either applied as a solid (this was common with yellow) or as stripes, whose thickness could be varied for different intensities of color.
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In this example, the layering of separate electroplates is clearly visible: one with blue ink, one with yellow and a third with red. |
 |  In this example, the line block electroplate is inked with blue, with additional plates with further line block drawings added in red and yellow. |
A second color process, one which dominated the illustration for dime novels covers during the first few decades of this century, is the color halftone. This method resembles the use of black and white relief halftones except that primary colors, with the addition of black, are applied as dots. As in chromoxylographs, the combination of primary colors lead to many new colors. As in black and white relief halftones, the density of the colors is determined by the size of the dots.
Color halftones: the color in this process is applied by dots of red, yellow and blue. Unlike later color halftones, black is not used in this illustration. The darkest areas of color here are either blue, or a combination of blue, red and yellow. |
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Further detail of color halftone: the use of the three different primary colors should be more clear in this image. |
Another characteristic color halftones shared with chromoxylographs was the potential for off-register printing.
When the impressions from the differently colored plates were not completely aligned, the image could become blurry, or as in this case, completely out of register. In this case the red and yellow are aligned and the blue and black are aligned, but they are not aligned as a whole.
Not only could color halftones be printed out of register, but sometimes not all of the color plates necessary were printed. Here are two examples of the same issue of a dime novel where the first example was printed and distributed without the black ink plate having been added; the second image is a copy where the plate was used.
 With Black Ink Plate |  Without Black Ink |
