Special Colors

For some customers, Tektronix made front panels in special colors.

Apparently, some military applications specified a certain kind of color/texture. Also, some systems integrators sold racks of equipment configured for some specific purpose and wanted to make the rack look more like a unified product. Systems integrators would ask third-party providers (e.g., Tektronix) to supply the instruments with a specific appearance.

From the beginning through the 7000 series, Tektronix instruments typically have dark writing on unpainted metal panels. Some special-color panels (e.g. the light gray CA shown below) retain the dark writing. Other special-color panels (e.g. the dark gray CA shown below) use light writing to maintain contrast.