PDP-11 terminal monitor color

[Pavel Tsybulin]

Hello, everyone.

I have a strange question: if you had to choose between monitor colors, which would you prefer? White, green, or orange? Why?

Reasoned answers in the style of "originally PDP-11 was equipped with a VT220 monitor with a P23 phosphor, which was dark orange #FFB000" are very welcome.

Thanks a lot

  Pavel

[niksg...@gmail.com]

You are going to get a ton of "it depends" kind of answers, and this is no exception. If you are trying to recreate the authentic user experience of the day, you are going to have to think about refresh rates and how much persistence you want, as well as the colour of the display. 

My first experience in the 1970s was with IBM 3277 monitors for data entry - classic P1 green. Short-ish persistence (except in Winter when the terminal room was cold - phosphors slow down a lot when it's cold). Easy on the eyes. Since I was working for IBM at the time, where the 3270 mono displays were all green, and 3101 ASCII terminal products were available only in green or white (ghastly IMHO) I had to wait until the IBM PC and a third party amber monitor before using P3 amber in anger, as it were. That would be my preference now, 45 years later - indeed, just checked my colour choice for an SSH session and it's still amber text. I happen to have downloaded an IBM 3270 font for the terminal window (some habits die hard). 

[Clem Cole]

below

Please be careful here.  When you say PDP-11, that means many things.  The console terminal on a PDP-11 was an option — originally, an ASR33, LA30 (Decwriter), or VT05 was an option. 

PDP-11's

• PDP-11/20: Announced January 1970, first shipments in 1970
• PDP-11/05 and 11/10: Introduced in 1971
• PDP-11/35 and 11/40: Introduced in 1973
• PDP-11/45: June 1972
• PDP-11/50: IIRC alongside the 11/45 in 1972, though some sources suggest 6 months later
• PDP-11/03: Introduced in 1975
• PDP-11/70: Introduced in March 1975
• PDP-11/04: Introduced in 1976
• PDP-11/34: Introduced in 1976
• PDP-11/60: Introduced in 1977
• PDP-11/23: Introduced in 1979
• PDP-11/24: Introduced in 1981
• PDP-11/44: Introduced in 1981
• PDP-11/84: Introduced in 1985
• PDP-11/93 and 11/94: Introduced in 1990

Now consider the terminals:

• VT05: November 1970
• VT50 July 1974
• VT52: September 1975
• VT100: August 1978
• VT180: 1982
• VT220: November 1983
• VT320: August 1987
• VT340: April 1987
• VT420: 1990

 

The console terminal on a PDP-11 was an option — originally, a Teletype Corp ASR33, LA30 (Decwriter), or a VT05.  The "PDP-11" [which became the models 11/20 and 11/15] was released the same year as the LA30 and VT05 (1970).   The VT52 replaced the VT05 and the LA36 (DECwriter II), and later (1978), the VT100 became an option (the VT-220 was 5 years after that) ...   the point being that if the customer bought a console with the system (and many times they did not - I don't think I ever did), it was 13 years into the PDP-11's life before a VT-220 was even possible.

That said, of the video terminals that DEC sold over the years, during the early years, the "vast majority" featured a green (P1 or P31) phosphor screen with a dark background.  When the VT-100 was introduced, DEC had switched to a white P4 phosphor and continued using it for the VT-100.  You are correct that by the time of the VT-220, DEC offered three phosphor colors (FWIW: Amber seems to have been most popular in the European market).

But summing it up, DEC sold more terminals that use white (P4) than the two other choices.

[Johnny Billquist]

There was nothing in that question that was about type of terminal. The
mention of the VT220 was just as an example of a type of motivation for
a preference that the OP would find welcome.

With that said - the question was about monitor colors, which completely
leaves printing terminals out of scope.

And finally, I've used both VT05, VT52 and VT100 type terminals. And
I've only seen those with white color phosphor. The VT52 could have a
colored plastic plate placed in front of the monitor if you wanted some
other color of it. While I'm sure other phosphor options existed, I
can't say I saw any on those models. The VT220 obviously came with
white, green or amber. I think amber might have been the one I saw the
most of. Other manufacturers definitely seemed more commonly green or
amber, but I wouldn't dare say which might have been more common of the
three.

Johnny

On 2025-11-17 17:29, Clem Cole wrote:
> below
>
> On Mon, Nov 17, 2025 at 8:16 AM Pavel Tsybulin <tsyb...@gmail.com
> <mailto:tsyb...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> Hello, everyone.
> I have a strange question: if you had to choose between monitor
> colors, which would you prefer? White, green, or orange? Why?
>
> Reasoned answers in the style of "originally PDP-11 was equipped
> with a VT220 monitor with a P23 phosphor, which was dark orange
> #FFB000" are very welcome.
>
> Please be careful here.  When you say PDP-11, that means many things.
> The console terminal on a PDP-11 was an option — originally, anASR33,
> LA30 (Decwriter), or VT05 was an option.
>
> PDP-11's
>

> * PDP-11/20: Announced January 1970, first shipments in 1970
> * PDP-11/05 and 11/10: Introduced in 1971
> * PDP-11/35 and 11/40: Introduced in 1973
> * PDP-11/45: June 1972
> * PDP-11/50: IIRC alongside the 11/45 in 1972, though some sources
> suggest 6 months later
> * PDP-11/03: Introduced in 1975
> * PDP-11/70: Introduced in March 1975
> * PDP-11/04: Introduced in 1976
> * PDP-11/34: Introduced in 1976
> * PDP-11/60: Introduced in 1977
> * PDP-11/23: Introduced in 1979
> * PDP-11/24: Introduced in 1981
> * PDP-11/44: Introduced in 1981
> * PDP-11/84: Introduced in 1985
> * PDP-11/93 and 11/94: Introduced in 1990
>
> Now consider the terminals:
>
> * *VT05:***November 1970
> * *VT50* July 1974
> * *VT52:* September 1975
> * *VT100*: August 1978
> * *VT180:* 1982
> * *VT220:* November 1983
> * *VT320:* August 1987
> * *VT340: *April 1987
> * *VT420:* 1990

>
> The console terminal on a PDP-11 was an option — originally, a Teletype
> Corp ASR33, LA30 (Decwriter), or a VT05.  The "PDP-11" [which became the
> models 11/20 and 11/15] was released the same year as the LA30 and VT05
> (1970).   The VT52 replaced the VT05 and the LA36 (DECwriter II), and
> later (1978), the VT100 became an option (the VT-220 was 5 years after
> that) ...   the point being that if the customer bought a console with
> the system (and many times they did not - I don't think I ever did), it
> was 13 years into the PDP-11's life before a VT-220 was even possible.
>
> That said, of the video terminals that DEC sold over the years, during
> the early years, the "vast majority" featured a green (P1 or P31)
> phosphor screen with a dark background.  When the VT-100 was introduced,
> DEC had switched to a white P4 phosphor and continued using it for the
> VT-100.  You are correct that by the time of the VT-220, DEC offered
> three phosphor colors (FWIW: Amber seems to have been most popular in
> the European market).
>
> But summing it up, DEC sold more terminals that use white (P4) than the
> two other choices.
>

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--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: b...@softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

[Adam Thornton]

For whatever it's worth, I think amber long-persistence phosphor is the prettiest.  Obviously it's no good for playing fast-refresh games, because the moving things just turn into smears, but if you're doing stuff with fairly static text it's lovely.

Adam

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[Anton Lavrentiev]

I use PuTTY with Glass VT220 font and the amber color RGB=(255,160, 0).  (which is #FFA000, as IMO "B0" is a bit too dull compared to whatever I can see on a real VT320, which I have next to the PC).

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