Developer composition with sodium, lithium and/or potassium salts for developing negative working imaged photographic material

Claim 1

A developing composition capable of removing the unexposed non-image areas of an imagewise exposed negative working photographic element which comprises an aqueous solution having a pH of from about 8 to 12 of (a) a sodium, potassium or lithium salt of octyl, decyl or dodecyl monosulfate which is present in an amount of from about 0.05% to about 10%, and (b) a sodium, lithium, potassium or ammonium metasilicate salt which is present in an amount of from about 0.001% to about 5.0%, and (c) a lithium, potassium, sodium or ammonium borate salt which is present in an amount of from about 0.1% to about 15%, and (d) one or more compounds selected from the group consisting of oxalic, malonic, succinic, glutaric and adipic acids or a lithium, potassium, sodium or ammonium salt thereof which is present in an amount of from about 0.01% to about 5%, and (e) di- and/or tri-sodium or -potassium phosphate which is present in an amount of from about 0.5% to about 12%, and wherein both sodium and potassium compounds must be present in said composition and the ratio of sodium to potassium ranges from about 1:1 to about 1.4:2, and wherein said percentages are by weight of the solid parts of said composition.