Rainbow Books

The Rainbow Books are a collection of Compact Disc format specifications.

Red Book

CD-DA (Digital Audio) – standardized as IEC 60908; extended by CD-Text

Yellow Book

CD-ROM (Read-Only Memory) – standardized as ECMA-130 and ISO/IEC 10149;extended by CD-ROM XA (eXtended Architecture)

Orange Book

CD-MO (Magneto-Optical)

CD-R (Recordable) alias CD-WO (Write Once) alias CD-WORM (Write Once, Read Many)

CD-RW (ReWritable) alias CD-E (Eraseable)

The orange book standard references the fact that "Yellow" and "Red" mix to orange; which means that CD-R and CD-RW is capable of music and data; although other colors (other CD standards) that do not mix are capable of being burned onto the physical medium. Orange book also introduced the standard for multisession writing.

White Book

VCD (Video)

CD-Bridge – hybrid discs, e.g. CD-Ready

SVCD (Super Video)

Blue Book

E-CD (Enhanced)

CD+ (plus)

CD+G (plus Graphics) – karaoke, extended by CD+EG / CD+XG (plus Extended Graphics)

Beige Book

PCD (Photo)

Separate from Photo CD is Kodak proprietary "Portfolio CD" format that combines Red book CD audio and Beige book PCD with interactive menus and hotspots on PCD images. Some standalone Philips Photo/Audio CD players could play Portfolio CDs and windows player application was freely available. The Kodak Portfolio CD may have no Rainbow Book.

Green Book

CD-i (interactive)

Purple Book

DDCD (Double Density)

Scarlet Book

SACD (Super Audio)

Non-standard optical disc (OD) formats are sometimes unofficially referred to as Black Book formats.