Resistor color codes
What the colored bands on a resistor mean under the IEC 60062 color code, and the number codes printed on surface mount resistors.
Test yourself: Resistor color codes quiz
Band colors 12 symbols
Reading the code 3 symbols
Other markings 2 symbols
Common values 3 symbols
About resistor color codes
The colored bands on a resistor give its value in ohms and how far the real value may be from it. The code is IEC 60062, the International Electrotechnical Commission’s standard for marking resistors and capacitors. The standard is sold, not published free, so these pages quote the makers who mark to it, Vishay, TT Electronics, Panasonic, TE Connectivity, Yageo and Bourns, and university lab manuals. Panasonic, which began making resistors in 1933, says surface mount resistors have become mainstream and it no longer makes color-coded ones; chips carry printed numbers instead.
The colors
Ten colors stand for the digits 0 to 9, black to white, and as the multiplier band the same colors give the power of ten. Gold and silver are the multipliers below 1 and the commonest tolerances.
| Color | Digit | Multiplier | Tolerance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black | 0 | ×1 | – |
| Brown | 1 | ×10 | ±1% |
| Red | 2 | ×100 | ±2% |
| Orange | 3 | ×1,000 | – |
| Yellow | 4 | ×10,000 | – |
| Green | 5 | ×100,000 | ±0.5% |
| Blue | 6 | ×1,000,000 | ±0.25% |
| Violet | 7 | ×10,000,000 | ±0.1% |
| Gray | 8 | ×100,000,000 | ±0.05% |
| White | 9 | ×1,000,000,000 | – |
| Gold | – | ×0.1 | ±5% |
| Silver | – | ×0.01 | ±10% |
| No band | – | – | ±20% |
Gray’s ±0.05% is from TT Electronics and Panasonic; Vishay’s 2010 sheet gives gray no tolerance.
How many bands
On a four-band resistor the first two bands are digits, the third is the multiplier and the fourth the tolerance; with three bands and no tolerance band, the tolerance is ±20%. A five-band resistor has a third digit, for precision values, and a six-band resistor adds the temperature coefficient. The tolerance band stands apart: TT Electronics says it is wider than the others or further from them, and Panasonic says a gold or silver band is the last.
Printed codes and the single black band
Surface mount resistors are printed with digits: the last digit is the number of zeros, so 103 is 10 kΩ, and an R is a decimal point. A resistor with one black band and nothing else is a zero-ohm link, which Token Electronics describes as a link packaged in the same format as a resistor.
Values people look up
The 10 kΩ resistor is brown, black, orange; the 1 kΩ is brown, black, red; the 220 Ω is red, red, brown. Each has a gold fourth band at ±5%.
Sources
- Surface Mount Resistor Marking, Document number 20020 (revision 25 May 2010), Vishay Draloric (Vishay Intertechnology), Color code table
- Technical Note TN004: Methods for Marking Values on Resistors, TN004 (09.24), TT Electronics, Colour code; chip marking codes
- Resistor Color Codes: Thorough Explanations of How to Interpret, Calculate, and Remember Them!, Technical article (24 October 2025), Panasonic Industry, Introduction; §2; §3
- Resistor Color Codes: What Do the Color Bands Mean?, Resistors resource page, TE Connectivity, IEC 60062; 3-, 4-, 5- and 6-band resistors
- Zero Ohm Resistors and Jumper Wire (ZO, JW), ZO and JW series product page, Token Electronics, Product description
- Appendix B: Color Code for Composite Carbon Resistors, EE 1202 lab manual, Appendix B, The University of Texas at Dallas, Example 5
- resistors (Lab: Arduino to Digital Audio Workstation), Photo caption, NYU Tisch, ITP Physical Computing, Caption
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research