Aqueous-based thermally sensitive emulsions and imaging materials include a mixture of binders in at least one imaging layer. These binder mixtures include from 70 to about 99 weight % of hydrophilic binders such as gelatin and gelatin derivatives, and the remainder of the total binder weight is composed of one or more hydrophobic binders or water-dispersible polymer latexes. These binder mixtures are particularly useful in imaging layers of thermographic and photothermographic materials and provide long term keeping and reduced crystallization of fatty acids.