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Desktop Env. · 1998 · Open Source

KDE 1

When I first installed KDE, it felt like a new generation of Linux Desktops. It just looked so modern! In many screenshots, you can see that KDE was often used with the preconfigured gradient background. The colors for Desktop 1 and 2 were actually different. I included all gradient colors below, eventhough they're not strictly used as a solid color background. However, KDE 1.0 had also one hardcoded solid default background color. A pretty cool steel blue, which felt like the perfect companion to the grey desktop bar and the orange accented icons. All other colors stem from the default color picker (including the top color in the desktop 1 gradient).

LaterKDE 2
Preview#a0a0a4
All colors21 · click to preview
Steel Blue
#4682b4
Red
#ff0000
Green
#00ff00
Blue
#0000ff
Cyan
#00ffff
Magenta
#ff00ff
Yellow
#ffff00
Dark Red
#800000
Dark Green
#008000
Navy
#000080
Teal
#008080
Purple
#800080
Olive
#808000
White
#ffffff
Silver
#c0c0c0
Medium Gray
#a0a0a4
Gray
#808080
Black
#000000
Bright Blue
#0004ff
Bright Teal
#00bfaf
Teal
#008080
Medium Gray
KNOWN USES5 palettes · 1996–2000
19962000
First in Windows NT 4.0, 1996. Recurs across 5 palettes through Windows Me, 2000.
View all 5 palettes →
COLOR VALUES · CLICK TO COPY
HEX#a0a0a4Copy
RGB160, 160, 164Copy
HSL240° 2% 64%Copy
CMYK2% 2% 0% 36%Copy
View all 10 formats →

Similar colors elsewhere

closest to Medium Gray · #a0a0a4
99% match
Medium Gray
#a0a0a7
99% match
Mid Gray
#a0a0a0
98% match
Gray (Dithered)
#9e9e9e
96% match
Gray (Light Partial)
#a5a5a5
94% match
Stone Gray
#a8a8a8
93% match
Warm Ash
#9a9996

Colors of the same era

platforms released around 1998 · popular defaults
Steel Blue3 yr earlier
BeOS
1995 · BeOS
Teal3 yr earlier
Windows 95
1995 · Windows
Teal2 yr earlier
Windows NT 4.0
1996 · Windows
Gray2 yr earlier
Xfce
1996 · Desktop Env.
Fog Gray1 yr earlier
Blackbox
1997 · Desktop Env.
French Blue (Light)1 yr earlier
Mac OS 8
1997 · Mac OS
Tealsame year
Windows 98
1998 · Windows
Dithered Blue (Averaged)1 yr later
FreeGEM
1999 · GEM
Deep Azure2 yr later
KDE 2
2000 · Desktop Env.
Redmond Blue2 yr later
Windows 2000
2000 · Windows
Redmond Blue2 yr later
Windows Me
2000 · Windows