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.

Book series that contains the specifications of Compact Discs

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)

This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources.
Find sources: "Rainbow Books" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2010)

|

This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please help improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (November 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

|

(Learn how and when to remove this message)

Illustration depicting each format by color. Optical discs

General

* Optical disc
* Optical disc drive
* Optical disc authoring
* Authoring software
* Recording technologies
* Recording modes
* Packet writing
* Burst cutting area

Optical media types

* Compact disc (CD): CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, 5.1 Music Disc, Super Audio CD (SACD), Photo CD, CD Video (CDV), Video CD (VCD), Super Video CD (SVCD), CD+G, CD-Text, CD-ROM XA, CD-i, MIL-CD, Mini CD
* DVD: DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-R DL, DVD+R DL, DVD-R DS, DVD+R DS, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, DVD-D, DVD-A, DVD-Video, HVD, EcoDisc, MiniDVD
* Blu-ray Disc (BD): BD-R & BD-RE, Blu-ray 3D, Mini Blu-ray Disc, 4K Blu-ray (Ultra HD Blu-ray)
* M-DISC
* Universal Media Disc (UMD)
* Enhanced Versatile Disc (EVD)
* Forward Versatile Disc (FVD)
* Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD)
* China Blue High-definition Disc (CBHD)
* HD DVD: HD DVD-R, HD DVD-RW, HD DVD-RAM
* High-Definition Versatile Multilayer Disc (HD VMD)
* VCDHD
* GD-ROM
* Personal Video Disc (PVD)
* MiniDisc (MD): MD Data, MD Data2
* Hi-MD
* LaserDisc (LD): LD-ROM, LV-ROM
* Video Single Disc (VSD)
* Magneto-optical discs
* Ultra Density Optical (UDO)
* 3D optical data storage
* Stacked Volumetric Optical Disk (SVOD)
* Fluorescent Multilayer Disc
* Hyper CD-ROM
* Nintendo optical disc (NOD)
* Archival Disc (AD)
* Professional Disc
* DataPlay

Standards

* SFF ATAPI/MMC
* Mount Rainier (packet writing)
* Mount Fuji (layer jump recording)
* Rainbow Books
* File systems
* ISO 9660
* Joliet
* Romeo
* Rock Ridge / SUSP
* El Torito
* Apple ISO 9660 Extensions
* Universal Disk Format (UDF)
* ISO 13490

See also

* History of optical storage media
* High-definition optical disc format war

* v
* t
* e

The Rainbow Books are a collection of CD format specifications generally written and published by standards bodies including the ISO, IEC, and ECMA.

## Red Book (1980) [edit]

* CD-DA (Digital Audio) – standardized as IEC 60908
* CD-Text—a 1996 extension to CD-DA
* CD-MIDI—part of the original red-book standard
* CD+G (plus Graphics) – karaoke
* CD+EG / CD+XG (plus Extended Graphics) – an extension of CD+G

## Yellow Book (1983) [edit]

* CD-ROM (Read-Only Memory)[1][2] – standardized as ISO/IEC 10149[3] in 1988 and ECMA-130[4] in 1989
* CD-ROM XA (eXtended Architecture) – a 1991 extension of CD-ROM

## Green Book (1986) [edit]

* CD-i (Interactive)

## Orange Book (1990) [edit]

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)
* CD-R (Recordable) alias CD-WO (Write Once) alias CD-WORM (Write Once, Read Many) – partially standardized as ECMA-394
* CD-RW (ReWritable) alias CD-E (Eraseable) – partially standardized as ECMA-395

## Beige Book (1992) [edit]

* PCD (Photo)

## White Book (1993) [edit]

* CD-i Bridge \- 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)
* SVCD (Super Video, 1998) – a 1998 extension of VCD, standardized as IEC 62107 in 2000.

## Blue Book (1995) [edit]

* E-CD/CD+/CD Extra (Enhanced)

## Scarlet Book (1999) [edit]

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

* SACD (Super Audio)

## Purple Book (2000) [edit]

* DDCD (Double Density)

## See also[edit]

* 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

## References[edit]

1. ^ "InfoWorld Vol. 16, No. 23". InfoWorld. June 6, 1994. p. 88. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
2. ^ "Proceedings of the 5th Annual Federal Depository Library Conference". U.S. Government Printing Office. April 15–18, 1996. p. 11. Retrieved February 10, 2022.
3. ^ ISO (1995). "ISO/IEC 10149:1995 – Information technology – Data interchange on read-only 120 mm optical data disks (CD-ROM)". Archived from the original on 2019-01-15. Retrieved 2010-08-06.
4. ^ "Data Interchange on Read-only 120 mm Optical Data Disks (CD-ROM)" (PDF). ECMA. June 1996. Retrieved 2023-12-31.

## External links[edit]

* Philips CD Specifications
* "The Great Books". The World of CDs and DVDs. ThinkQuest. Archived from the original on 2012-12-09. Retrieved 2010-04-07.

* v
* t
* e

Rainbow Books

* Red Book
* CD-DA
* CD-Text
* CD+G
* CD+EG
* Green Book
* CD-i
* CD-i Ready
* Yellow Book
* CD-ROM
* CD-ROM XA
* Mixed Mode CD
* Orange Book
* CD-MO
* CD-R
* CD-RW
* White Book
* VCD
* SVCD
* CD-i Bridge
* Blue Book
* E-CD/CD+
* Beige Book
* PCD
* Scarlet Book
* SACD
* Purple Book
* DDCD

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template