11 ms·

What color was “Apple Beige”?

255 points by ryanmercer 6y ago

bimmer44 6y ago
Great article, thanks for posting. It makes me think about car detailers obsessing over paint matching for repairs on older vehicles. As a petrolhead I sometimes wonder to what extent there will be an equivalent collectors community of old PC hardware to the car community. Obviously there already is substantial interest in older PC's but if you compare the similarly widespread use of cars and computers I'd say that there are many more forums discussing old car maintenance, availability of very specialized detailing products for cars, marketplaces for collectible cars, concours for showing cars off etc. than there are for collecting/restoring PC's. Maybe PC collecting, restoring etc. will be as big a deal but it's just early on the curve still. Or maybe the comparatively much higher steepness of the progress curve for PCs will prevent any sort of similar widespread enthusiasm for older stuff.
- hnlmorg 6y ago
  People already collect and restore computers. Retro gaming and retro computing is a big scene already. However most IBM-clone towers aren't worth restoring because they're common, not particularly powerful and thus cheap to come by. Much like how a 1990s Ford Escort is going to fetch less interest than a Jaguar from the same era.
  - bimmer44 6y ago
    This is also a really good point - I was specifically thinking of PC's in my point above and you're right there is a lot more interest in old gaming systems. Maybe part of it is also the emotional connection and what does or doesn't have it, there are definitely a lot of old cars no one is collecting! Nassim Taleb's "graveyard of silent evidence" at play in my first comment.
- eloisant 6y ago
  There are people collecting and repairing 80's computers already. I guess the biggest difference is that you can still use a collector car to go for a drive today, but on the other hand there is not much practical use to get from a collector computer. Sure, you can play old games, but most of the task you'd do with a modern computer can't be done with an old one (unlike cars).
  - bimmer44 6y ago
    I'm definitely not arguing there aren't people collecting these iconic old computers - just the mismatch between how many people have used computers daily for 20/30 years now and how few people seem to collect them. In my small-sized city in a small country there are maybe 25 car clubs I could be part of, specialist garages for just about every brand of car - even really niche shops that just do custom re-upholstery only for certain brands etc. Whereas for computers there's just a handful of people using the local auction and classified sites. I think the reason you cite for the mismatch is the strongest one. If you're into collecting 80's BMWs you can still easily drive with a club including newer cars every weekend on the same roads, use the same petrol, easily get plugs, belts other parts etc. But an 80's PC is much more "stuck in time" and you need to be quite knowledgeable to maintain and enjoy in the same way.
    - furyg3 6y ago
      2-3 years ago I found my mom's old clamshell G3 iBook in her garage (from around 2000). Surprisingly it still booted up and worked great. I wanted to do some writing that trip and instead of using my own laptop which was full of distractions, I opted to use Word on the iBook. Which was also fun. I saved my work as a text file on a USB stick, which was no problem bringing over to my modern Mac.
      - jfrunyon 6y ago
        Meanwhile, on a system from the 80s, you wouldn't have a word processor, you wouldn't have support for any of the filesystems supported by modern OSes (well, maybe FAT?), and you wouldn't have USB anyway. Heck, you'd need either a serial port or a floppy drive on a modern computer in order to even have a chance of transferring data between them.
- ryanmercer 6y ago
  >Maybe PC collecting, restoring etc. will be as big a deal but it's just early on the curve still It is a fairly big deal for a lot of us, just in this room I'm sitting in I've got 3 vintage machines from the late 70s to early 80s, and 3 generations of Windows machines (95, 98, XP), alongside my work and personal computers. There are vintage computer fairs the world around, there are vintage computer clubs (ours here in the general Indy area meets monthly) the world around, there are numerous podcasts and some sizable YouTube content creators too. There is even a healthy level of developing new software and hardware for vintage computers and consoles. https://atariage.com/ https://atariage.com/ is a quick look at (mostly, but not exclusively) Atari related for example. Then you have YouTube creators like: - LGR https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLx053rWZxCiYWsBETgdKrQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLx053rWZxCiYWsBETgdKrQ - Gaming Historian https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnbvPS_rXp4PC21PG2k1UVg https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnbvPS_rXp4PC21PG2k1UVg - Modern Vintage Gamer https://www.youtube.com/c/ModernVintageGamer https://www.youtube.com/c/ModernVintageGamer - Adrian's Digital Basement https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE5dIscvDxrb7CD5uiJJOiw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE5dIscvDxrb7CD5uiJJOiw - 8Bit Guy https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8uT9cgJorJPWu7ITLGo9Ww https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8uT9cgJorJPWu7ITLGo9Ww - Nostalgia Nerd https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7qPftDWPw9XuExpSgfkmJQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7qPftDWPw9XuExpSgfkmJQ - This Does Not Compute https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEp20NgOZHmgWdbQdHSxgjw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEp20NgOZHmgWdbQdHSxgjw - Noel's Retro Lab https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2-SP1bYi3ueKlVU7I75wFw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2-SP1bYi3ueKlVU7I75wFw - RMC - The Cave https://www.youtube.com/user/RetroManCave https://www.youtube.com/user/RetroManCave - My Life in Gaming https://www.youtube.com/c/mylifeingaming https://www.youtube.com/c/mylifeingaming etc. A lot of the above channels have videos restoring vintage hardware, or doing dream builds with vintage hardware. Podcasts like: - ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/ https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/ - Floppy Days Vintage Computing Podcast https://floppydays.libsyn.com/ https://floppydays.libsyn.com/ - Amigos Retro Gaming Network https://player.fm/series/amigos-retro-gaming-network-amigos-everything-amiga-arg-presents-sprite-castle-pixel-gaiden https://player.fm/series/amigos-retro-gaming-network-amigos-... - Retro Computing Roundtable http://rcrpodcast.com/ http://rcrpodcast.com/ - Sprite Castle https://podcast.robohara.com/category/spritecastle/ https://podcast.robohara.com/category/spritecastle/ - RetroMacCast https://retromaccast.libsyn.com/ https://retromaccast.libsyn.com/ etc Hardware and software developers/stores like: - https://retroradionics.co.uk/ https://retroradionics.co.uk/ (bought a brand spankin' new Joystick for my Atari machines from them in December, it's very nice) - https://atariage.com/store/ https://atariage.com/store/ (you say you want to play Halo on your 2600?) - https://lotharek.pl/ https://lotharek.pl/ - https://www.atarimax.com/ https://www.atarimax.com/ - https://newstuffforoldstuff.com/index.py https://newstuffforoldstuff.com/index.py etc There is also a very healthy vintage computer preservation community on the Internet Archive - preserving magazines, zines, newsletters, manuals, schematics, software, etc. - https://archive.org/details/vintagesoftware https://archive.org/details/vintagesoftware - https://archive.org/details/atari_2600_library https://archive.org/details/atari_2600_library - https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_c64 https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_c64 - https://archive.org/details/commodore_c64_manuals https://archive.org/details/commodore_c64_manuals etc.
- tyingq 6y ago
  You can find a lot of posts with people successfully using cream hair bleach and UV lights to restore 80's PCs. They call it "retrobrighting". One resource: https://powercc.org/retrobright/ https://powercc.org/retrobright/
  - timbit42 6y ago
    It's usually spelled retr0brighting, including on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retr0bright https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retr0bright
systemvoltage 6y ago
We’ve gone from classy Beige to tacky RGB when it comes to PC cases. What a shame.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- causality0 6y ago
  It's getting worse and worse, too. Ten years ago there was an enormous variety of PC cases with almost every imaginable design philosophy. These days it's basically either a black plastic box or a clear glass box. Mini-fridge or aquarium, that's it.
  - messe 6y ago
    Although there are some exceptions: https://fabiensanglard.net/the_beautiful_machine/index.html https://fabiensanglard.net/the_beautiful_machine/index.html
  - amiga-workbench 6y ago
    Even the classically tasteful manufacturers like Lian-Li, Silverstone and In Win are mostly offering ricey garbage now. Its very frustrating.
    - tomjakubowski 6y ago
      Fractal Design still makes nice and unexciting cases.
      - whywhywhywhy 6y ago
        I have a Fractal case and do like the look of it, I just wish there were more companies selling premium larger cases because I dislike some of the plastic parts. If the thing is going to have to sit in my office/bedroom I don't mind paying up to $1K for something nice looking, grown up and with premium metal finish. Premium case market is entirely very small cases like the Louqe Ghost.
Donckele 6y ago
In case anyone is wondering: RGB HEX C4C0AA
- notum 6y ago
  Thank you. Sites that waste my time with pay/signup walls should also give me a portion of their revenues.
  - ChrisRR 6y ago
    Then you need to read the article. This is about trying to match the paint against a pantone reference paint. This user tried to get a hex value instead, which would be completely different depending on lighting conditions
    - OscarCunningham 6y ago
      Two paints can also look the same under some lighting conditions but not others.
- grahamlee 6y ago
  that depends very much on the lighting in which a picture of Apple Beige is taken, the colour space of the photograph, the colour temperature of the monitor, the display gamma…
  - alpaca128 6y ago
    Does that really matter? When used in digital content the color will vary from one PC screen to the next anyway, and from what I know color matching real materials with such a precision is basically its own art form. My preferred color scheme most definitely doesn't look the same for me as for the designer with his color calibrated screen. But it's close enough that I wouldn't even consider comparing it.
    - grahamlee 6y ago
seeyacall 6y ago
hello, i am glad to contact you I am from Seeya video chat app to make friends and share your life with peiple worldwide. we invite you to download it to try to meet new people and get relationship advice via video chat! Click this link : http://www.seeya.video/ http://www.seeya.video/
bni 6y ago
I had no idea these were painted. Have always assumed it was colored plastic like in the C64s and Amigas.
- ryanmercer 6y ago
  It was a surprise to me too, though I'm not a big Apple guy as my niche is more Atari computers Virtually all vintage computers in my experience are colored plastic and not painted, I wonder if there are any others in a gray/beige/white that were painted.
  - jmull 6y ago
    It looks like the Commodore PET 4000 series is painted metal. If I had to bet I'd say the ones with chiclet keyboards (2000 series, I guess) were metal as well, though that's based on my old memories, so that really means I don't know.
    - kps 6y ago
      They were. Among other things, Commodore Business Machines made file cabinets, and did the early PET cases in the same shop.
korijn 6y ago
It seems highly unlikely that the paint in that bottle retained its original color-affecting properties over all this time. When using it to touch up machines that have approximately the same age, you may get lucky and the colors resemble eachother, as appears to be the case in the article. Attempting to determine the color identity (e.g. pantone or hex) of apple beige however seems impossible using old paint. I am not a chemist though, so it may be possible that this paint has chemical properties that cause it to retain its color-affecting properties over long periods of time. I just think it's unlikely.
- monadgonad 6y ago
  Assuming the bottle has been kept closed and in a cupboard, it’s avoided the two main things that make pigments change over time - air and sunlight. It’s not possible to say that it hasn’t degraded at all, but it’s fair to say that it’ll be a lot closer to the original than the computer cases are.
illys 6y ago
I dream to find the very same article on the original IBM PC hardware. I wish to repaint my dirty 5160, but none of the beige sprays of the local DIY shops fit. I could order on Internet but I have no references and Google searches could not help me so far. Have any of you repainted some early IBM PC hardware with proper colors? RAL codes are welcome if you have...
- wa1987 6y ago
  One of your best bets might be the vintage keyboard community: - https://www.modelfkeyboards.com/ https://www.modelfkeyboards.com/ - https://deskthority.net/ https://deskthority.net/ - https://geekhack.org/ https://geekhack.org/
  - illys 6y ago
    Thanks, I will have a look :-)
coldcode 6y ago
I owned an early Apple ][+ and had no idea it was painted. I don't even recall what I did with it given its been 40+ years and I have owned so many Apple devices... The original shade of that Apple was much prettier than the beige shade they used later in various Mac models.
protomyth 6y ago
I just remember Apple Beige looking sickly when next to an Apple "Snow White" machine. It was an instant "oh, that one is the old one" thing.
smithclay 6y ago
Was at an event where someone asked the industrial designer Hartmut Esslinger (a very colorful dresser) about the color of the early Macs: why beige? “Because of dust”
- flyGuyOnTheSly 6y ago
  I wonder if the off yellow tinge had anything to do with the color of nicotine typically attached to said dust at the time.
gdubs 6y ago
Excellent article. One slight adjustment would be to use a color calibration chart for the photos [1]. When the whole thing is about color, it’s a bit of a bummer to not see the color represented accurately. On my iPhone it looks like the carriage house green I painted my kitchen cabinets. Not to detract from the article though which is such great sleuthing, and preservation of something that us retro tech obsessives are very fond of. 1: https://m.dpreview.com/articles/6497352654/get-more-accurate-color-with-camera-calibration- https://m.dpreview.com/articles/6497352654/get-more-accurate...

255 points by ryanmercer 6y ago

Great article, thanks for posting. It makes me think about car detailers obsessing over paint matching for repairs on older vehicles. As a petrolhead I sometimes wonder to what extent there will be an equivalent collectors community of old PC hardware to the car community. Obviously there already is substantial interest in older PC's but if you compare the similarly widespread use of cars and computers I'd say that there are many more forums discussing old car maintenance, availability of very specialized detailing products for cars, marketplaces for collectible cars, concours for showing cars off etc. than there are for collecting/restoring PC's. Maybe PC collecting, restoring etc. will be as big a deal but it's just early on the curve still. Or maybe the comparatively much higher steepness of the progress curve for PCs will prevent any sort of similar widespread enthusiasm for older stuff.

hnlmorg 6y ago
People already collect and restore computers. Retro gaming and retro computing is a big scene already. However most IBM-clone towers aren't worth restoring because they're common, not particularly powerful and thus cheap to come by. Much like how a 1990s Ford Escort is going to fetch less interest than a Jaguar from the same era.
- bimmer44 6y ago
  This is also a really good point - I was specifically thinking of PC's in my point above and you're right there is a lot more interest in old gaming systems. Maybe part of it is also the emotional connection and what does or doesn't have it, there are definitely a lot of old cars no one is collecting! Nassim Taleb's "graveyard of silent evidence" at play in my first comment.
eloisant 6y ago
There are people collecting and repairing 80's computers already. I guess the biggest difference is that you can still use a collector car to go for a drive today, but on the other hand there is not much practical use to get from a collector computer. Sure, you can play old games, but most of the task you'd do with a modern computer can't be done with an old one (unlike cars).
- bimmer44 6y ago
  I'm definitely not arguing there aren't people collecting these iconic old computers - just the mismatch between how many people have used computers daily for 20/30 years now and how few people seem to collect them. In my small-sized city in a small country there are maybe 25 car clubs I could be part of, specialist garages for just about every brand of car - even really niche shops that just do custom re-upholstery only for certain brands etc. Whereas for computers there's just a handful of people using the local auction and classified sites. I think the reason you cite for the mismatch is the strongest one. If you're into collecting 80's BMWs you can still easily drive with a club including newer cars every weekend on the same roads, use the same petrol, easily get plugs, belts other parts etc. But an 80's PC is much more "stuck in time" and you need to be quite knowledgeable to maintain and enjoy in the same way.
  - furyg3 6y ago
    2-3 years ago I found my mom's old clamshell G3 iBook in her garage (from around 2000). Surprisingly it still booted up and worked great. I wanted to do some writing that trip and instead of using my own laptop which was full of distractions, I opted to use Word on the iBook. Which was also fun. I saved my work as a text file on a USB stick, which was no problem bringing over to my modern Mac.
    - jfrunyon 6y ago
      Meanwhile, on a system from the 80s, you wouldn't have a word processor, you wouldn't have support for any of the filesystems supported by modern OSes (well, maybe FAT?), and you wouldn't have USB anyway. Heck, you'd need either a serial port or a floppy drive on a modern computer in order to even have a chance of transferring data between them.
ryanmercer 6y ago
>Maybe PC collecting, restoring etc. will be as big a deal but it's just early on the curve still It is a fairly big deal for a lot of us, just in this room I'm sitting in I've got 3 vintage machines from the late 70s to early 80s, and 3 generations of Windows machines (95, 98, XP), alongside my work and personal computers. There are vintage computer fairs the world around, there are vintage computer clubs (ours here in the general Indy area meets monthly) the world around, there are numerous podcasts and some sizable YouTube content creators too. There is even a healthy level of developing new software and hardware for vintage computers and consoles. https://atariage.com/ https://atariage.com/ is a quick look at (mostly, but not exclusively) Atari related for example. Then you have YouTube creators like: - LGR https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLx053rWZxCiYWsBETgdKrQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLx053rWZxCiYWsBETgdKrQ - Gaming Historian https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnbvPS_rXp4PC21PG2k1UVg https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnbvPS_rXp4PC21PG2k1UVg - Modern Vintage Gamer https://www.youtube.com/c/ModernVintageGamer https://www.youtube.com/c/ModernVintageGamer - Adrian's Digital Basement https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE5dIscvDxrb7CD5uiJJOiw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE5dIscvDxrb7CD5uiJJOiw - 8Bit Guy https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8uT9cgJorJPWu7ITLGo9Ww https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8uT9cgJorJPWu7ITLGo9Ww - Nostalgia Nerd https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7qPftDWPw9XuExpSgfkmJQ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7qPftDWPw9XuExpSgfkmJQ - This Does Not Compute https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEp20NgOZHmgWdbQdHSxgjw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEp20NgOZHmgWdbQdHSxgjw - Noel's Retro Lab https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2-SP1bYi3ueKlVU7I75wFw https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2-SP1bYi3ueKlVU7I75wFw - RMC - The Cave https://www.youtube.com/user/RetroManCave https://www.youtube.com/user/RetroManCave - My Life in Gaming https://www.youtube.com/c/mylifeingaming https://www.youtube.com/c/mylifeingaming etc. A lot of the above channels have videos restoring vintage hardware, or doing dream builds with vintage hardware. Podcasts like: - ANTIC The Atari 8-bit Podcast https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/ https://ataripodcast.libsyn.com/ - Floppy Days Vintage Computing Podcast https://floppydays.libsyn.com/ https://floppydays.libsyn.com/ - Amigos Retro Gaming Network https://player.fm/series/amigos-retro-gaming-network-amigos-everything-amiga-arg-presents-sprite-castle-pixel-gaiden https://player.fm/series/amigos-retro-gaming-network-amigos-... - Retro Computing Roundtable http://rcrpodcast.com/ http://rcrpodcast.com/ - Sprite Castle https://podcast.robohara.com/category/spritecastle/ https://podcast.robohara.com/category/spritecastle/ - RetroMacCast https://retromaccast.libsyn.com/ https://retromaccast.libsyn.com/ etc Hardware and software developers/stores like: - https://retroradionics.co.uk/ https://retroradionics.co.uk/ (bought a brand spankin' new Joystick for my Atari machines from them in December, it's very nice) - https://atariage.com/store/ https://atariage.com/store/ (you say you want to play Halo on your 2600?) - https://lotharek.pl/ https://lotharek.pl/ - https://www.atarimax.com/ https://www.atarimax.com/ - https://newstuffforoldstuff.com/index.py https://newstuffforoldstuff.com/index.py etc There is also a very healthy vintage computer preservation community on the Internet Archive - preserving magazines, zines, newsletters, manuals, schematics, software, etc. - https://archive.org/details/vintagesoftware https://archive.org/details/vintagesoftware - https://archive.org/details/atari_2600_library https://archive.org/details/atari_2600_library - https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_c64 https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_c64 - https://archive.org/details/commodore_c64_manuals https://archive.org/details/commodore_c64_manuals etc.
tyingq 6y ago
You can find a lot of posts with people successfully using cream hair bleach and UV lights to restore 80's PCs. They call it "retrobrighting". One resource: https://powercc.org/retrobright/ https://powercc.org/retrobright/
- timbit42 6y ago
  It's usually spelled retr0brighting, including on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retr0bright https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retr0bright

systemvoltage 6y ago

We’ve gone from classy Beige to tacky RGB when it comes to PC cases. What a shame.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
causality0 6y ago
It's getting worse and worse, too. Ten years ago there was an enormous variety of PC cases with almost every imaginable design philosophy. These days it's basically either a black plastic box or a clear glass box. Mini-fridge or aquarium, that's it.
- messe 6y ago
  Although there are some exceptions: https://fabiensanglard.net/the_beautiful_machine/index.html https://fabiensanglard.net/the_beautiful_machine/index.html
- amiga-workbench 6y ago
  Even the classically tasteful manufacturers like Lian-Li, Silverstone and In Win are mostly offering ricey garbage now. Its very frustrating.
  - tomjakubowski 6y ago
    Fractal Design still makes nice and unexciting cases.
    - whywhywhywhy 6y ago
      I have a Fractal case and do like the look of it, I just wish there were more companies selling premium larger cases because I dislike some of the plastic parts. If the thing is going to have to sit in my office/bedroom I don't mind paying up to $1K for something nice looking, grown up and with premium metal finish. Premium case market is entirely very small cases like the Louqe Ghost.

Donckele 6y ago

In case anyone is wondering: RGB HEX C4C0AA

notum 6y ago
Thank you. Sites that waste my time with pay/signup walls should also give me a portion of their revenues.
- ChrisRR 6y ago
  Then you need to read the article. This is about trying to match the paint against a pantone reference paint. This user tried to get a hex value instead, which would be completely different depending on lighting conditions
  - OscarCunningham 6y ago
    Two paints can also look the same under some lighting conditions but not others.
grahamlee 6y ago
that depends very much on the lighting in which a picture of Apple Beige is taken, the colour space of the photograph, the colour temperature of the monitor, the display gamma…
- alpaca128 6y ago
  Does that really matter? When used in digital content the color will vary from one PC screen to the next anyway, and from what I know color matching real materials with such a precision is basically its own art form. My preferred color scheme most definitely doesn't look the same for me as for the designer with his color calibrated screen. But it's close enough that I wouldn't even consider comparing it.
  - grahamlee 6y ago

seeyacall 6y ago

hello, i am glad to contact you I am from Seeya video chat app to make friends and share your life with peiple worldwide. we invite you to download it to try to meet new people and get relationship advice via video chat! Click this link : http://www.seeya.video/ http://www.seeya.video/

bni 6y ago

I had no idea these were painted. Have always assumed it was colored plastic like in the C64s and Amigas.

ryanmercer 6y ago
It was a surprise to me too, though I'm not a big Apple guy as my niche is more Atari computers Virtually all vintage computers in my experience are colored plastic and not painted, I wonder if there are any others in a gray/beige/white that were painted.
- jmull 6y ago
  It looks like the Commodore PET 4000 series is painted metal. If I had to bet I'd say the ones with chiclet keyboards (2000 series, I guess) were metal as well, though that's based on my old memories, so that really means I don't know.
  - kps 6y ago
    They were. Among other things, Commodore Business Machines made file cabinets, and did the early PET cases in the same shop.

korijn 6y ago

It seems highly unlikely that the paint in that bottle retained its original color-affecting properties over all this time. When using it to touch up machines that have approximately the same age, you may get lucky and the colors resemble eachother, as appears to be the case in the article. Attempting to determine the color identity (e.g. pantone or hex) of apple beige however seems impossible using old paint. I am not a chemist though, so it may be possible that this paint has chemical properties that cause it to retain its color-affecting properties over long periods of time. I just think it's unlikely.

monadgonad 6y ago
Assuming the bottle has been kept closed and in a cupboard, it’s avoided the two main things that make pigments change over time - air and sunlight. It’s not possible to say that it hasn’t degraded at all, but it’s fair to say that it’ll be a lot closer to the original than the computer cases are.

illys 6y ago

I dream to find the very same article on the original IBM PC hardware. I wish to repaint my dirty 5160, but none of the beige sprays of the local DIY shops fit. I could order on Internet but I have no references and Google searches could not help me so far. Have any of you repainted some early IBM PC hardware with proper colors? RAL codes are welcome if you have...

wa1987 6y ago
One of your best bets might be the vintage keyboard community: - https://www.modelfkeyboards.com/ https://www.modelfkeyboards.com/ - https://deskthority.net/ https://deskthority.net/ - https://geekhack.org/ https://geekhack.org/
- illys 6y ago
  Thanks, I will have a look :-)

coldcode 6y ago

I owned an early Apple ][+ and had no idea it was painted. I don't even recall what I did with it given its been 40+ years and I have owned so many Apple devices... The original shade of that Apple was much prettier than the beige shade they used later in various Mac models.

protomyth 6y ago

I just remember Apple Beige looking sickly when next to an Apple "Snow White" machine. It was an instant "oh, that one is the old one" thing.

smithclay 6y ago

Was at an event where someone asked the industrial designer Hartmut Esslinger (a very colorful dresser) about the color of the early Macs: why beige? “Because of dust”

flyGuyOnTheSly 6y ago
I wonder if the off yellow tinge had anything to do with the color of nicotine typically attached to said dust at the time.

gdubs 6y ago

Excellent article. One slight adjustment would be to use a color calibration chart for the photos [1]. When the whole thing is about color, it’s a bit of a bummer to not see the color represented accurately. On my iPhone it looks like the carriage house green I painted my kitchen cabinets. Not to detract from the article though which is such great sleuthing, and preservation of something that us retro tech obsessives are very fond of. 1: https://m.dpreview.com/articles/6497352654/get-more-accurate-color-with-camera-calibration- https://m.dpreview.com/articles/6497352654/get-more-accurate...