Color Codes for Resistors (and Capacitors)

Dimension

For resistors, the dimension is ohm and for capacitors, it is usually pF (pico Farad).

First/last ring

If the resistor/capacitor case has

3 color rings, the one next to a connection is the first one.
4 color rings, there is usually more room between the last ring and the rest.
5 color rings, the one next to a connection is the first one.

Usually, the gold or silver ring is the last one (tolerance).

Range of values

Resistors are divided into different series: E6, which has 6 values per decade (between 1 and 10, 10 and 100, and so on), E12 which has 12 values per decade, up to E96 with 96 values per decade. The most common series is E12.

  

    Color  | # | mult | tol
    -------+---+------+-----
    Black  | 0 |    1 |    -
    Brown  | 1 |   10 |   1%
    Red    | 2 |  100 |   2%
    Orange | 3 |   1k |    -
    Yellow | 4 |  10k |    -
    Green  | 5 | 100k | 0.5%
    Blue   | 6 |   1M |    -
    Lilac  | 7 |  10M |    -
    Gray   | 8 | 100M |    -
    White  | 9 |   1G |    -
    -      | - |    - |  20%
    Gold   | - |  0.1 |   5%
    Silver | - | 0.01 |  10%

  Series E6/12/24:  # # mult tol
         E48/96  :  # # # mult tol

The value is calculated by multiplying the number (## or ###) with 'mult'.

Updated: May 19th, 1999
Created: February 1997
Status : Partially verified on September 30th, 1997
Thanks to: -Site copyright © 1997 by Marc-Jano Knopp This document is part of MJK's Commodore 64 & LCD Page Brought back to life by Peter Schepers, Dec 10, 2005 because I really liked this site!