Resistor Color Code
First two bands = first two digits (“mantissa”) of resistance value
Third band = number of zeroes (“multiplier”) after the first two digits
Fourth band = tolerance on resistance value
First Three Bands:
Color
Black
Brown
Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue
Violet
Gray
White
Gold
Silver
Number
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
rd
0.1 (3 band)
0.01 (3rd band)
Fourth Band:
Color
Gold
Silver
No band
Tolerance
±5%
±10%
±20%
Examples:
(brown) (black) (green) (gold) = (1) (0) (5) (±5%) = 1 0 00000 ±5% = 1,000,000 Ω ± 5% = 1MΩ ±5%
(orange) (orange) (red) (silver) = (3) (3) (2) (±10%) = 3 3 00 ±10% = 3,300 Ω ± 10% = 3.3kΩ ± 10%
(yellow) (violet) (gold) (gold) = (4) (7) (0.1) (±5%) = 4 7 0.1 ± 5% = 47*0.1 Ω ± 5% = 4.7 Ω ± 5%
(gray) (red) (blue) (gold) = (8) (2) (6) (±5%) = 8 2 000000 ±5% = 82,000,000 Ω ± 5% = 82MΩ ± 5%
Question: How do I know I’m holding the resistor the right way to identify the four bands in order?
Answer: Only the third or fourth band may be gold or silver. And the fourth band will very rarely be
anything but gold or silver. (If there is no fourth band, there will be a large blank space instead.)