The additive Paget Color process used separate color screens for taking and viewing the image, unlike Autochrome, for which the screen was permanently fixed to the plate. The screens consisted of transparent red, green and blue squares in a regular grid. To take the photograph, a screen was placed in front of the plate in the camera. The resulting black and white negative recorded the intensity of light passing through each of the miniscule color filters, essentially creating three intermingled separation images. Once the picture was developed and printed, the colors could be recreated by viewing the positive through a similar screen. The patterns of the taking and viewing screens were identical. The viewing screen had to be placed in exactly the same position relative to the plate as the taking screen. Achieving that registration was one of the key challenges for processes that used separate screens.

The Paget process was developed by Geoffrey Whitfield and Clare Livingstone Finlay, patented by Whitfield in 1912 and introduced in 1913 by the Paget Prize Plate Co. Frank Hurley used Paget Color plates to document the Shackelton Antarctic Expedition, although most of the plates were destroyed after the ship became trapped in the ice. Paget Color was reasonably successful, but the growing availability of celluloid roll film in the 1920s made processes based on glass plates less attractive (Long 1988). In addition, making the screens without defects was difficult, which drove the cost up. Paget Color was discontinued in the early 1920s (Pénichon 2013, 36–38).