Agfa was founded in 1867 as a color dye factory near Berlin. In 1894, Leiven Gevaert started making calcium paper for photography. The company he founded L.Gevaert & Cie acquired the Parisian company Blue Star Papers in 1895 which introduced a new gelatin paper. In the early 1900s, they became Gevaert Photo Producten NV and they moved to Mortsel, Belgium, where their current headquarters resides.

This was followed mid-19th century by the development of mass market color photography, X-rays, films and the first fully automatic 35mm camera. In 1964, Gevaert and Agfa joined forces to continue imaging technology development. In 1982, Agfa-Gevaert acquired Compugraphic Corporation and began their journey into digital imaging. With the acquisition of Hoechst’s printing plate and proofing business and Dupont’s Graphic Arts Division in 1997, Agfa became the leader in the graphic prepress business with over 40% of all printed matter produced with Agfa products globally.

At the turn of the century, they started focusing on sign and display. In 2023, Agfa sold its printing plate and offset solutions business to the Aurelius Group, which now exists under the ECO3 brand.