Rainbow Books

The Rainbow Books is a collection of CD format specifications.

After a year of experimentation and discussion, the Red Book CD-DA standard was published in 1980.

The standard is defined in the Red Book, one of a series of "Rainbow Books" (named for their binding colors) that contain the technical specifications for all CD formats.

*PCD (Photo)

Photo CDs are defined in the Beige Book and conform to the CD-ROM XA and CD-i Bridge specifications as well.

Before CD-RW technology, in 1990 a standard for magneto-optical recordable and erasable CDs called CD-MO was introduced and set in the Orange Book, part 1 as a CD with a magneto-optical recording layer.

One of a set of color-bound books that contain the technical specifications for all CD formats, the Yellow Book, standardized by Sony and Philips in 1983, specifies a format for discs with a maximum capacity of 650 MiB.

CD-R/RWs are available with capacities of 80 minutes of audio or 737,280,000 bytes (700 MiB), which they achieve by molding the disc at the tightest allowable tolerances specified in the Orange Book CD-R/CD-RW standards.

*DDCD (Double Density)

The name "Orange-Book-Standard" comes from the Orange Book that contained the format specifications for CD-Rs, the technology at issue in the case that led to the Orange-Book-Standard decision.

The Rainbow Books is a collection of CD format specifications.

The Rainbow Books is a collection of CD format specifications.

*CD-i (Interactive)

It was created as an extension of CDDA and CD-ROM and specified in the Green Book, co-developed by Philips and Sony, to combine audio, text and graphics.

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

*SACD (Super Audio)

A CD can be used to store audio, video, and data in various standardized formats defined in the Rainbow Books.

Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA), also called Red Book, was an audio format developed by Sony and Philips in 1980, and commercially introduced with their compact disc (CD) format in 1982.