Rainbow Books

For the series of U.S. government publications on computer security standards, see Rainbow Series. For pre-Internet communications protocols, see Coloured Book protocols. For the "Reading Rainbow" children's television series, see Reading Rainbow.

The Rainbow Books are a collection of CD format specifications, generally written and published by the companies involved in their development, including Philips, Sony, Matsushita and JVC, among others.

Cover for the Green Book (CD-i) specification standard, in its eponymous color

Illustration depicting each format by color.

A number of these specifications have been officially adopted by established standards bodies, including the ISO, IEC, and ECMA.

Red Book (1980)

• CD-DA (Digital Audio) – originally published by Philips and Sony in 1981,^[1] it was later standardized as IEC 60908:1987^[2] and later IEC 60908:1999.^[3]
  • CD-Text – a 1996 extension to CD-DA
  • CD-MIDI – part of the original Red Book standard
  • CD+G (plus Graphics) – an extension of the Red Book specifications used mainly for karaoke
    • CD+EG / CD+XG (plus Extended Graphics) – an extension of CD+G

Yellow Book (1983)

• CD-ROM (Read-Only Memory)^[4][5] – originally developed by Philips and Sony,^[6] it was standardized as ISO/IEC 10149^[7] in 1988 and ECMA-130^[8] in 1989
  • CD-ROM XA (eXtended Architecture) – a 1991 extension of CD-ROM, developed by Philips and Sony^[9]

Green Book (1986)

• CD-i (Interactive) – standard developed and published by Phillips.^[10]

Orange Book (1990)

Orange is a reference to the fact that red and yellow mix to orange. This correlates with the fact that CD-R and CD-RW are capable of audio ("Red") and data ("Yellow"); although other colors (other CD standards) that do not mix are capable of being burned onto the physical medium. Orange Book also introduced the standard for multisession writing.

• CD-MO (Magneto-Optical)^[11]
• CD-R (Recordable) alias CD-WO (Write Once) alias CD-WORM (Write Once, Read Many) – originally developed by Sony and Philips,^[12] it was partially standardized as ECMA-394.^[13]
• CD-RW (ReWritable) alias CD-E (Eraseable) – originally developed by Philips, Sony and Ricoh,^[14] it was partially standardized as ECMA-395.^[15]

Beige Book (1992)

• Photo CD (Photo) — proprietary standard jointly developed by Philips and Eastman Kodak;^[16] never released to the public^[17]

White Book (1993)

The White Book refers to a standard of compact disc that stores pictures and video.

• CD-i Bridge^[18] - a bridge format between CD-ROM XA and the Green Book CD-i, which is the base format for Video CDs, Super Video CDs and Photo CDs.
• VCD (Video) – a standard jointly developed and published by JVC, Matsushita, Philips and Sony.^[19]
  • SVCD (Super Video, 1998) – a 1998 extension of VCD, standardized as IEC 62107 in 2000.^[20]

Blue Book (1995)

The Blue Book is a compact disc standard that defines the Enhanced Music CD format, which combines audio tracks and data tracks on the same disc.

• E-CD/CD+/CD Extra (Enhanced)^[21] – a standard jointly developed and published by Microsoft, Philips and Sony

Scarlet Book (1999)

Scarlet color of this book is a reference to the Red Book, which defines original CDDA.

• SACD (Super Audio)^[22] – a standard jointly developed and published by Philips and Sony

Purple Book (2000)

A standard developed by Philips and Sony in the late 1990s, with over 1 GB in capacity and recordable/re-recordable capabilities.^[23]

• DDCD (Double Density) – divided in three separate specifications:
  • DD-ROM (Double Density Read-Only)^[24]
  • DD-R (Double Density Recordable)^[25]
  • DD-RW (Double Density ReWritable)^[26]

See also

• ISO 9660, a 1986 filesystem standard used in conjunction with CD-ROM formats.
• Orange-Book-Standard, a decision named after the Compact Disc standard, issued in 2009 by the German Federal Court of Justice on the interaction between patent law and standards