One type of developer cannot cover all situations; for example, film exposed by poor lighting conditions may require an active developer to bring out as much of the image as possible, while a film exposed under normal conditions requires a normal working developer. There  are  many  different  developers,  each  provides different activity and quality of development. The actual choice of the developer to use depends on the type of film, conditions under which it was exposed, type of negative required, and the developing time that is best for  your  development  method. GENERAL-PURPOSE DEVELOPERS A developer for general-purpose work should produce moderate grain, normal contrast images. Clear areas of the negative, as well as the image areas, should be  basically  fog  free. Some general-purpose developers are as follows: HC-110 DK-50 Microdol FINE-GRAIN DEVELOPERS All photographic emulsions have a grainy structure. Although this grainy structure is not normally visible to the  naked  eye,  it  becomes  visible  whenever  high magnifications are used to make prints. The tendency to use  small-format  film  and  make  large  enlargements  has resulted in the need for fine-grain developers. When  enlargements  are  made  from  small  negatives developed in other than fine-grain developer, the grain of the film may be objectionable. Graininess in the film should be controlled in the development of the film. Keep in mind, however, that every film has its own grain structure or characteristics. For 35mm-roll film, it is normally  best  to  use  a  fine-grain  developer. Fine-grain developers achieve the desired result in several  ways: They are usually soft working and this tends to reduce clumping of the silver grains. Some  fine-grain  developers  actually  produce smaller individual grains of black metallic silver. This, however, tends to reduce the film speed. The  grayish  white  images  produced  by  some fine-grain developers help by providing for increased passage of light between individual grains. This results in less local variation in density. Most  fine-grain  developers  produce  relatively low-contrast negatives. A reduction in contrast in the negative  tends  to  reduce  the  graininess  of  the  negative. However,  this  may  not  contribute  significantly  to  a reduction in the graininess of the final print. Any advantage achieved by lowering negative contrast may be offset by the need to use a higher contrast printing filter to print the negative. Some fine-grain developers are as follows: ID-l1 (Ilford) D-76 (Kodak) Atomal (Agfa) HIGH-CONTRAST DEVELOPERS To produce maximum contrast on process and line copy type of films, you must have a developer that produces density readily and is free from any tendency to  produce  fog  within  the  time  of  development. Some  of  the  most  popular  high-contrast  developers are as follows: Kodalith   (Kodak) D-11   (Kodak) D-19    (Kodak) To  prevent  staining  when  using  a  high-contrast developer, you should rinse the negative well between developing  and  fixing. HIGH-DEFINITION DEVELOPERS A  high-definition,  or  compensating,  developer  adds increased  sharpness  to  the  image  by  enhancing  contrast of  image  edges  and  fine  detail  in  the  negative. High-definition  developers  may  increase  film  speed  by one or two f/stops, but they also increase graininess. High-definition  developers  are  recommended  for  use only with fine-grain (slow or medium speed) films. Some of the high-definition developers are as follows: Acufine Ethol  TEC 10-3