Standard Resistor color code

Color code to read resistor values

Color	1st band	2nd band	3rd band	Multiplier	Tolerance	Temp. Coefficient
Black	0	0	0	×10^0
Brown	1	1	1	×10^1	±1%	100 ppm
Red	2	2	2	×10^2	±2%	50 ppm
Orange	3	3	3	×10^3		15 ppm
Yellow	4	4	4	×10^4		25 ppm
Green	5	5	5	×10^5	±0.5%
Blue	6	6	6	×10^6	±0.25%
Violet	7	7	7	×10^7	±0.1%
Gray	8	8	8	×10^8	±0.05%)
White	9	9	9	×10^9
Gold				×0.1	±5%
Silver				×0.01	±10%
None					±20%

How to read a resistor

There is a color code to label the resistor values and its tolerance. If you look closely any circuit you will discover that resistors are tagged with color stripes. A more detailed inspection will reveal that these stripes are not equally spaced. Resistors will look like the figure. These different colored stripes indicate the resistor value. To read this value we proceed as following:

First find the tolerance band, it will typically be gold ( 5%) and sometimes silver (10%).

Starting from the other end, identify the first band - write down the number associated with that color; in this case Blue is 6.

Now 'read' the next color, here it is Red so write down a '2' next to the six. (you should have '62' so far.)

Now read the third or 'multiplier' band and write down that number of zeros.

In this example it is two so we get '6200' or '6,200'. If the 'multiplier' band is Black (for zero) don't write any zeros down.

If the 'multiplier' band is Gold move the decimal point one to the left. If the 'multiplier' band is Silver  move the decimal point two places to the left. If the resistor has one more band past the tolerance band it is a quality band. Read the number as the '% Failure rate per 1000 hour' . This is rated assuming full wattage being applied to the resistors. (To get better failure rates, resistors are typically specified to have twice the needed wattage dissipation that the circuit produces) 1% resistors have three bands to read digits to the left of the multiplier. They have a different temperature coefficient in order to provide the 1% tolerance.

Standard values for first two digits for 2% and 5% tolerance resistors

10	16	27	43	68
11	18	30	47	75
12	20	33	51	82
13	22	36	56	91
15	24	39	62	100