- For other uses, see Beige.
An official bottle of Apple Beige touch up paint.
Apple Beige, also referred to as "Putty", is the color used by Apple Computer for the cases of the early models from its Apple II series of computers. The color was also used on the Apple III, Apple Lisa and first compact Mac models.[1][2]
History[]
The color was personally selected by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in collaboration with industrial designer Jerry Manock. According to Manock, the closest Pantone value at the time in 1977 was 453 C (hexadecimal #BFBB98), but Jobs wanted a unique color. The closest color in the modern Pantone system is Pantone 14–0105 TPG (hexadecimal #C4C0AA).[3]
A yellowed Apple IIc.
Because the color was externally painted onto early Apple II models, such specimens were observed to retain their color better with age. Touch up paint was also made available for these early models. Later models had color dye directly mixed into the injection-molded plastic, causing them to yellow more visibly over time. Early compact Macs that were produced in such a manner simply used Pantone 453.[3]
Apple Beige was superseded by "Fog" with the Apple IIc in April 1984, and then replaced by "Platinum" with the Macintosh SE and II in March 1987, which adhered to the newer Snow White design language developed by Hartmut Esslinger.[4] Steve Jobs would later derisively refer to all off-white computer case colors as "beige".[5]
References[]
- ↑ When the Mac Plus Changed from Beige to Platinum by Adam Rosen, The Vintage Mac Museum. 2014-02-15.
- ↑ Tracking Down “Apple Beige” by Josh Centers, TidBITS. 2021-01-22.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 What color was “Apple Beige”? by Ben Zotto, Medium. 2021-01-19.
- ↑ The colors of Apple by Linus Edwards, Vintagezen. 2013-08-28.
- ↑ If Apple can go home again, why not Dell?. CNET News (May 19, 2008). Archived from the original on October 10, 2011.
See also[]
External links[]
- Pantone 453 by Steven Weyhrich at Apple II History (2012-02-10)
- Color of a Mac 128k? by snuci at 68k Macintosh Liberation Army (2016-03-14)
