Abstract: In this paper we present a model for the simulation of the photographic development process for use on computer generated and other digital images. The model provides us with a tone reproduction operator based on photographic principles that mimics the creation process of black and white photographic prints. We focus on four characteristics of photographic materials: density response, spectral sensitivity, resolution and granularity. These characteristics are described quantitatively using empirical data thus making the simulation of the response of actual photographic materials a straight forward application of the model. The result of the simulation is a device independent image of floating point values between 0 and 1 which represent shades of gray on a linear scale. This image can be quantized for display on a given output device.