IEC 60062
Resistor Color Codes Reference
The colored bands printed on a resistor and the digit, multiplier, and tolerance each one stands for.
At a glance
Key factsStandard
Common
Four or five bands
Read from
The grouped end first
Last band
Tolerance, set apart
Band color meanings
12 rows| Color | Digit | Multiplier | Tolerance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black | 0 | x1 | n/a |
| Brown | 1 | x10 | ±1% |
| Red | 2 | x100 | ±2% |
| Orange | 3 | x1k | n/a |
| Yellow | 4 | x10k | n/a |
| Green | 5 | x100k | ±0.5% |
| Blue | 6 | x1M | ±0.25% |
| Violet | 7 | x10M | ±0.1% |
| Grey | 8 | x100M | ±0.05% |
| White | 9 | x1G | n/a |
| Gold | n/a | x0.1 | ±5% |
| Silver | n/a | x0.01 | ±10% |
Where it comes from
The resistor color code was standardized so that a small component could carry its value without printed text, which is hard to read at that size and easy to rub off. The scheme is defined by IEC 60062, the same international standard that governs capacitor marking. A resistor usually carries four or five bands: two or three digits, one multiplier, and one tolerance ring set slightly apart from the rest.
How to use it
Read the bands from the end where they are grouped closest together. On a four band resistor the first two bands are digits, the third is a power of ten multiplier, and the fourth is tolerance. So brown, black, red, gold reads 1, 0, times 100, giving 1000 ohms, or 1k, at five percent. On a five band part the first three bands are digits and the fourth is the multiplier. The multiplier column below is the power of ten you multiply by, and the same colors carry a digit value in the first bands.
This page is a standing reference at a fixed URL, built to be linked and cited. The data here is compiled from IEC 60062, the international standard for marking resistors and capacitors.