Color formers are pressure and thermal sensitive recording materials used in Shinkansen subway tickets, JR train tickets, convenience store receipts, and so on. Application of this product is fast expanding e.g. departmental store price labels, bar code labels, even Japan's lottery tickets and many other kinds of tickets.

Nagase Group commenced sales of this mainstream product in 1969. Today its share of the market is approximately 40% worldwide. Nagase established Sofix Corp. in 1990 as a joint venture with Yamada Chemical. In 1992 Sofix Corp. started production of color formers in Tennessee, USA.

To date Sofix Corp. remains the number one manufacturer of color formers globally. Their main customers are paper manufacturers in US and Europe.

Nagase Japan's Coating and Imaging Material Group, together with its network in Nagase America and Nagase Germany, is being assigned to continuously grow the global market for this product.