Among diverse contemporary colour prints, silver dye bleach prints and chromogenic prints are difficult to differentiate. They share similar visual characteristics and can use identical supports and surface finishes. However, their image-forming dyes differ, resulting in disparate conservation and restoration needs. This study aimed to determine practical measures for unambiguously differentiating between these two print types. Identifying characteristics—referred to here as ‘identifiers’—were collected from popular conservation sources and a mixed-method questionnaire survey. The accuracy and feasibility of these identifiers were evaluated against known prints sets. Examinations made use of water droplets, various light sources, digital 3D microscopy, and spectrophotometry. Results dichotomised these identifiers into ‘definite’ or ‘indefinite’ with ‘definite identifiers’ being able to discriminate independently. Only five out of 23 entries were termed definite identifiers. Azo dyes...