A customer recently asked what, if any, logic informs the spine colors of our books. According to Edie Freedman, the inventor of the animal brand and the color scheme, there isn’t. Edie said, “The logic behind the spine colors is just that we wanted to group certain books/topics and color seemed the best way to do it. No deep meaning there, unless you want to make something up.”

But just in case you’re wondering what colors correspond to what book series, you can find out below.





Browser-Safe Color Equivalents of our Series Colors

Last updated 11/20/02


Topic Area

Symbolic or typical 
animal image for topic

Color Description/PMS Color

Hexidex Color

Annoyances 

surinam toad 

Yellow-Orange/PMS 1375C 

FF9933 

Bioinformatics 

c. elegans 

Dark Green/PMS 3298C 

006666 (003333 too dark)

Text Processing 

blowfish 

Rubine Red

CC0066

In a Nutshell 

none/all 

Metallic Dark Red/PMS 8883C 

990000

Java 

java tiger 

Rich Dark Purple/PMS 2607C 

330066

Linux 

bucking horse, cowboy, horse head 

Rust Brown/PMS1815C 

660000

Apple 

chimp head, greyhound 

Dusky Purple/PMS 2725C 

660099

Networking & Sys Admin 

armadillo, donkey 

Midnight Blue/PMS Reflex Blue C 

000099

Oracle 

ants, bees, curly-antenna moth 

Bright Orange/PMS165C 

FF6600

Palm OS 

passenger pigeon 

Silver Metallic/PMS 877C 

6699CC

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) 

porpoises 

Rich Purple/PMS 254C 

993399

Perl 

camel, llama, gecko, owls 

Cyan/PMS313C 

006699

Security 

pgp lock, safe, cop with stick 

Warm Yellow/PMS122C 

FFCC33 

UNIX & C Programming 

cow, chipmunk 

Magenta/PMS246C 

990066

Web 

koala, pelican, apache horse 

Sea Green/PMS3272C 

009999

Windows 

seal, Pyrenees dog, jacana 
(bird with long toes) 

Royal Blue/PMS301C 

0000CC
Database
chameleon
Deep Red/PMS 186C
 CC0033

O’Reilly Company Red (apostrophe color) 

tarsier 

O’Reilly Red/PMS200C 

990000

Community Press 

apple tree 

Brown Paper 

CC9966