About Rainbow Reprints
Rainbow Reprints is an effort to provide high-fidelity recreations of the classic Rainbow Series of computer security books, published by the NCSC in the 1980s and 1990s. These books are out of print and are nearly impossible to find in physical form.
Books are meant to be shared and enjoyed. Having a physical copy of these books enables us to browse at our leisure, take them with us, and not worry about damaging an actual historical artifact. These reprints allow people to experience artifacts that were previously inaccessible.
Reprinting the Rainbow Series
To provide the highest quality reprints possible, care was taken to choose paper weights and colors that were as close to the originals as could be found. Over 40 different orange colored papers were compared to find the perfect orange for the "Orange Book".
Physical copies of these rare publications were located, and high-quality photographs or scans were taken of the original materials to ensure that the reprints are as close to the originals as possible.
Rescuing Rainbow Series Predecessors
Two publications were found which are referenced in various materials surrounding the Rainbow Series, but for which no PDF can be found online, nor any document found in WorldCat (the libary search engine). These publications are:
- NCSC-WA-001-85: Computer Security Glossary
- NCSC-WA-002-85: Personal Computer Security Considerations
I was lucky enough to discover these at a used book store, and have recreated these.
Future Printings
Proceeds from the initial round of Rainbow Reprints will be used to fund further printings of the rest of the Rainbow Series.
The "Orange Book" from 1985 was unique in that it commonly was distributed without a 'perfect' glued binding. The most common format that I've seen for the "Orange Book" was a 3-ring punch, with 2 staples. However, earlier editions, as well as most of the other Rainbow Series are all perfect bound.
Besides the Rainbow Series, other government publications in the field of computers and computer security will be made available.
For more information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Series
https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/other/1985/12/26/dod-rainbow-series/final
https://cisre.egr.uh.edu/resources/ia-resources/rainbow-series/
https://irp.fas.org/nsa/rainbow.htm