Abstract: A dye-forming electrothermographic element comprises an electrically activatable recording layer comprising (a) a reducing agent or reducing agent precursor capable of being activated by a Lewis base; (b) a cobalt(III) Lewis base complex; and (c) at least one of (i) a reducible dye-forming compound that has an oxidation state above that of the conjugate dye, (ii) a dye capable of changing its wavelength of absorption by reaction with a Lewis base, and (iii) a dye-forming coupler capable of reacting with the oxidized form of the reducing agent in (a) to form a dye. A negative or positive dye image is formed in such a dye-forming electrothermographic element by applying an electrical potential imagewise to the element of a magnitude and for a time sufficient to produce in the image areas a charge density sufficient to produce a latent image; and, then, heating the element to a temperature and for a time sufficient to form a dye image in the element.