Normally a combination of several dyestuffs is necessary to obtain a given colour. The behaviour of dyes in admixture is therefore of great practical interest. Level and repeatable dyeings are achieved more easily if dyes of almost equal behaviour in admixture can be selected.
Most fundamental work on dyeing deals with up‐take of single dyestuffs. Papers on dye‐uptake in combination dyeings are comparatively rare. The early literature has been reviewed by Vickerstaff [1] and Peters [2]. At the end of the 60s compatibility values for cationic dyes were introduced [3, 4] and since then they have been used in practice as a criterion for dye selection. Meanwhile several dyelfibre classes have been investigated [5] and similar behaviour in admixture is recognized to be an important requirement of optimised dye ranges.
In this article, papers on compatibility of dyestuffs for uniformly dyeable fibres will be reviewed. Coverage of fibre differences or on‐tone dyeing of fibre blends is not included.