HP recently announced that they have finished the developing of colored Lightscribe disks. While the writing process remains monochromatic, the disks now come in color coating. There are 5 new flavors: red, orange, yellow, blue and green.
The new color discs use a new coating layer based on the latest technology, officially called "Lightscribe Media Version 1.2." The 1.2 standard allows users to burn the images on a reactive dye that changes color when it is hit with a 780 nm infrared light source. The difference comes when the final product is being burned because the image now has a different color depending on the media.

At first, Lightscribe was only available in gray shades but it seems that HP thought of introducing new colors for quite a long time. The only problem was that the reactive dye wasn't stable enough. As a reminder, the Lightscribe FAQ contained a point that referred to the possibility of writing colored labels.

When posing the question: "Can Lightscribe create a label in color?" the guide answered: "Currently Lightscribe technology is available only in grayscale, creating an image that resembles a black-and-white photograph. Lightscribe's development strategy does include future announcements about additional capabilities; however business and legal requirements prevent publication of more specific information at this time."

Colored Lightscribe disks are already selling in Europe from the end of September and reports have confirmed that they also exist in Asia. At the moment we don't know if the disks are available in the US (it seems that the market response to Lightscribe is not that great here) but you might want to check your local retailers. HP says that all Lightscribe burners are compatible with the new media.