Traditional folk paintings, used for the celebration of Chinese New Year, are a unique form of Chinese folk art. We introduce the history of red/blue pigments and dyes used for the printing of traditional folk paintings in this paper. In our study, we selected 15 kinds of representative red/blue pigments and dyes to test their Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra, and then summarized the chemical structures and FTIR absorption features of these samples. Based on the standard spectra, we tested three traditional folk paintings printed in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China using the attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectrometer. The results indicate that what were used on these paintings are synthetic pigments and dyes, including acid red G, methyl blue and Prussian blue. This work explores the application of FTIR technology in calligraphy and paintings, and provides a scientific basis for the nondestructive identification of pigments and dyes in traditional folk paintings.