vintage decsystem10 paper sticker
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Stephen Jones
Jun 13, 2025, 2:31:20 PM6/13/25
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At somepoint in the early 1970s DEC passed out a few of these paper stickers. They're about 20" x 4". This one I have was applied to a cabinet, but the adhesive was weak (after many years) and fell off. It also became very brittle and was flaking.
The blue was also a little off, so I pantone matched it between a KA, KI and KL and got a nice
in between which is closer to the top "marketing" bar that was on the KIs, early KLs and some of the KA10s.
Does anyone on the list have one of the original paper ones? How is yours doing?
DR
Jun 13, 2025, 2:54:53 PM6/13/25
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What Pantone color code did you find matched well?
How about the colors for the PDP-8 brown and gold, PDP-11's colorful
front panel and switches, and of course the most recent -10? Does anyone
have a Pantone color code for those colors?
I'm not great at matching colors at all, so if someone with an artist's
eye knows these things, can you share?
Dale
PS, I just learned that Pantone has a color for my Alma Mater's
signature red color (University of Wisconsin -- Madison).
How about the colors for the PDP-8 brown and gold, PDP-11's colorful
front panel and switches, and of course the most recent -10? Does anyone
have a Pantone color code for those colors?
I'm not great at matching colors at all, so if someone with an artist's
eye knows these things, can you share?
Dale
PS, I just learned that Pantone has a color for my Alma Mater's
signature red color (University of Wisconsin -- Madison).
John Johnson
Jun 29, 2025, 8:36:30 AM6/29/25
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Pantone has a color for everything!
And their reference color systems are eye-wateringly expensive.
E.g. 1755 plastic chips, $9,078
Malcolm Ray
Jun 29, 2025, 8:58:18 AM6/29/25
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Don't forget that Pantone advise you to re-buy annually, in case the colours fade or yellow.
It's an incredible business model!
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Stephen Jones
Jun 29, 2025, 10:23:01 AM6/29/25
to John Johnson, PiDP-10
I hope that we can put together a list of our matches as well as various findings. Interestingly all of our "blue" PDP-10s vary, even on the same machine. This could be due to aging, but on the same machine? There is much variation.
We'll put together details in our blog and I hope that this helps others who need to get very close color matching based on real artifacts.
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terry-...@glaver.org
Jun 29, 2025, 10:08:54 PM6/29/25
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On Sunday, June 29, 2025 at 8:36:30 AM UTC-4 jjte...@gmail.com wrote:
Pantone has a color for everything!And their reference color systems are eye-wateringly expensive.E.g. 1755 plastic chips, $9,078
Well, they're not in the consumer market. For the people who need commercial Pantone matching, the price is worth it.
Many years ago, a dear friend (since deceased) owned a company called Union Ink (effectively deceased, although the name remains). His company ordered the Pantone swatch books by the thousands with the Union Ink name, logo and phone number on the cover. There's a substantial discount when a company buys in bulk like that.
I assume the colors in my swatch book have shifted over the decades. But I can always use the numeric codes to print swatches on my calibrated commercial 44" printer and then check them with my SpyderPRINT to verify the numeric values match. As long as the colors are not "out of gamut" (mostly extreme yellows and greens) I can get a 100% match.
If I can get a high-resolution (300 DPI is good, 600 DPI is better) full-size scan of the stickers with some overscan, and the Pantone color, I can certainly print these out in bulk (I'd run them on 24" wide paper with crop marks and then trim them on my rotary trimmer. I could even apply double-sided tape to the back if people wanted actual sticky stickers. The problem is how to ship something that big at a reasonable cost. Probably the best way is rolled up in a 5" cube box. It looks like it will cost under $5 to ship several in that type of box, with the box itself costing under 50 cents.
If there's sufficient interest (and a good scan), this should be do-able with no problem.
Many years ago, a dear friend (since deceased) owned a company called Union Ink (effectively deceased, although the name remains). His company ordered the Pantone swatch books by the thousands with the Union Ink name, logo and phone number on the cover. There's a substantial discount when a company buys in bulk like that.
I assume the colors in my swatch book have shifted over the decades. But I can always use the numeric codes to print swatches on my calibrated commercial 44" printer and then check them with my SpyderPRINT to verify the numeric values match. As long as the colors are not "out of gamut" (mostly extreme yellows and greens) I can get a 100% match.
If I can get a high-resolution (300 DPI is good, 600 DPI is better) full-size scan of the stickers with some overscan, and the Pantone color, I can certainly print these out in bulk (I'd run them on 24" wide paper with crop marks and then trim them on my rotary trimmer. I could even apply double-sided tape to the back if people wanted actual sticky stickers. The problem is how to ship something that big at a reasonable cost. Probably the best way is rolled up in a 5" cube box. It looks like it will cost under $5 to ship several in that type of box, with the box itself costing under 50 cents.
If there's sufficient interest (and a good scan), this should be do-able with no problem.
Lars Brinkhoff
Jun 30, 2025, 3:26:06 AM6/30/25
to PiDP-10
Pantone has a color for everything!
Do they have a code for olo?
John Johnson
Jun 30, 2025, 7:10:46 AM6/30/25
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John Johnson
Jun 30, 2025, 1:54:03 PM6/30/25
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