Tracking Down “Apple Beige”

Originally published at: Tracking Down “Apple Beige” - TidBITS

If you’ve ever been curious about the distinctive beige of the Apple II, a bottle of original touch-up paint prompted Ben Zotto to research the color’s origins.

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Cool. I would never have guessed. I always assumed that these were the generic “putty” color that companies have been using on file cabinets and other office furniture for decades (e.g. Staples 470383).

My old Apple equipment is pretty close to the color of my file cabinets (and my old beige PCs as well). I always assumed that the differences were simply a matter of different devices discoloring differently over the last 40 years.

Yeah, I would have thought it were “Putty” as well. If Ben reads this, he should take the paint sample to Ace or Paint store that has the scanner, make the paint color. I would love to know the pigment colour. But just checked the PPG formulation for the R: 190 G: 185 B: 162 LRV: 48
Hey, I think I will get this color and paint my computer office :slight_smile:

Thanks for the link to that VERY cool article. As a retrocomputist, I was not aware there was touch-up paint made for the Apple II beige computers. Fascinating!