Sulfur dye compositions and their production

A process for producing a dye slurry which comprises the steps of

• 1) reducing a starting sulfur dye, which contains disulfide groups, in an amount of a non-sulfide reducing agent-containing aqueous reducing medium which is effective to reduce said disulfide groups and dissolve any solid particles of the dye and produce an aqueous solution of the reduced form of the dye which can be oxidized to form an aqueous slurry of precipitated solid particles of the dye which differ from particles obtainable by oxygenating an aqueous composition of the starting dye by virtue of a) being softer, b) being of more uniform particle size, c) being of smaller average particle size, d) containing less bound sulfur, e) containing less free sulfur or f) any combination of a)-e), and
• 2) oxidizing the solution obtained in step 1) to produce said slurry of precipitated solid particles of the dye.