I suppose the color coding was a cost issue - that is: I'm assuming the technology to reliably and legibly print small numbers on somewhat irregularly shaped c

I suppose the color coding was a cost issue - that is: I'm assuming the technology to reliably and legibly print small numbers on somewhat irregularly shaped cylindrical objects was more expensive than applying color bands back when this became a common way to do it. I dislike color bands for two reasons: 1) I can never remember which color is which digit (it follows the rainbow, but not quite). 2) The colors can be hard to identify due to varying color shades, and quality ("is that read or brown?"). It also doesn't work well for people who are color blind.