— Resistor Capacitor and other component colour codes

— Electronic Component Letter and Colour Codes —

Typographic or letter codes for ERIE and older tubular ceramic capacitors These are marked with 1 to 3 numbers and a decimal point to indicate the value in pF with 2 letters to indicate the tolerance and temperature coefficient or 3 letters to indicate the tolerance and dielectric material used for high permittivity types (Hi-k dielectric) For values between 1000pF and 9900pF K is used as the 1000s marker i.e. 1K = 1,000pF and 3K3 = 3,300pF — For values 10,000pF and over the value is marked in µF where .01 = 10,000pF or 10nF nowadays Note that a value of 470 is actually 470pF whereas modern letter codes would make the value 47pF i.e. 47 multiplied by 10⁰pF — Before the 1970s things were simpler ?— 470JN = 470pF ±5% -750ppm/°C Emphasis was given to the temperature coefficient because ceramic capacitors were often used to compensate for the temperature effects of inductors in tuned circuits and filters — In the days before naked bungee jumping one of the biggest thrills you could get was making a precise odd value of capacitance with a specific temperature coefficient from a minimum of standard values The working voltage for the 11mm and 14mm long white tube versions shown below is 750Vdc — 500Vac or 175VA @ 0.5A_rms for RF — This form of coding was also applied to ceramic disc capacitors until the 1960s and can be confused with markings on later disc capacitors so beware
First letter Tolerance		Second letter Temperature coefficient /°C		or Second letter pair Dielectric type for Hi-K
B	±0.1pF	W	P470 (+470ppm)	AA	K060011
C	±0.25pF	A	P100 (+100ppm)	AC	K120051
D	±0.5pF	B	P030 (+30ppm)	AD	K120061
F	±1%	C	NPO (±0ppm)	AE	K120071
G	±2%	D	N030 (-30ppm)	AF	K120081
H	±2.5%	E	N050 (-50ppm)	AG	K170041
J	±5%	F	N080 (-80ppm)	AH	K170051
K	±10%	G	N150 (-150ppm)	AJ	K170061
M	±20%	H	N220 (-220ppm)	AK	K250011
N	-20% +40%	J	N330 (-330ppm)	AL	K2600
P	-20% +80%	K	N470 (-470ppm)	AM	K3000
R	0 +100%	L	N560 (-560ppm)	AN	K350011
S	±25%	M	N650 (-650ppm)	AO	K350081
T	-20% +100%	N	N750 (-750ppm)	AP	K4000
U	-20% +50%	P	N1500 (-1500ppm)	AR	K4007
V	±50%	R	N2200 (-2200ppm)	AS	K400011
		S	N3300 (-3300ppm)	AV	K7000
	6.8pF ±0.25pF -30ppm	T	N4200 (-4200ppm)	AW	K7001
		U	N4700 (-4700ppm)	AX	K7004
		V	N5600 (-5600ppm)	AY	K750012
				AZ	K800011
			6.8pF 10%+100ppm	BA	K4500
				BB	K6994
				BC	K6998
				BD	K7002

4 or 5 coloured dots or bands for tubular Ceramic Capacitor colour code For only 4 colours ignore the 1st or end colour — If you have a colour that does not fit like Blue for dot 4 or 5 then your reading the wrong way or this is the wrong table for the component
1st or end colour Temperature coefficient (ppm/°C)	2nd & 3rd colours C Value Significant figures	4th colour C Value Multiplier	5th colour Tolerance C > 10pF	5th colour Tolerance C < 10pF
NPO (0)	0	x1pF	±20%	±2pF
N030 (-30)	1	x10pF	±1%
N080 (-80)	2	x100pF	±2%
N150 (-150)	3	x1nF	±2.5%	±0.25pF
N220 (-220)	4	x10nF
N330 (-330)	5	6.8pF ±1pF 0ppm	±5%	±0.5pF
N470 (-470)	6			6.8pF ±0.5pF -30ppm
N750 (-750)	7
P030 (+30)	8	x0.01pF
P100 (+100)	9	x0.1pF	±10%	±1pF

6 Colour dots or bands tubular Ceramic Capacitor colour code If you have a colour that does not fit like Yellow for dot 6 or Blue for dot 2 then your reading the wrong way or this is the wrong table for the component you have
1st or end colour Temperature coefficient ppm/°C	2nd colour temperature coefficient Multiplier	3rd & 4th colours C Value Significant figures	5th colour C Value Multiplier	6th colour Tolerance C > 10pF	6th colour Tolerance C < 10pF
0	x1	0	x1pF	±20%	±2pF
-3	x10	1	x10pF	±1%
-8	x100	2	x100pF	±2%
-1.5	x1000	3	x1nF	±2.5%	±0.25pF
-2.2	x10,000	4	x10nF
-3.3		5	100pF ±10% -3300ppm	±5%	±0.5pF
-4.7		6			270pF ±10% -470ppm
-7.5		7
+3	x0.01	8	x0.01pF
+1	x0.1	9	x0.1pF	±10%	±1pF

6 Coloured dot moulded Mica Capacitor colour code
Look for an Arrow in the moulding and with the arrow facing left to right start reading from top left clockwise finishing at Red Green or White at bottom right — Top left colour indicates the construction type which is sometimes left blank when a colour fleck is introduced to the moulding — Any colours not in the table positions below indicates reading wrong way or wrong component for this table
Top Left colour Construction type	Next 2 colours Significant figures	next colour Multiplier	5th colour Tolerance	6th colour Working voltage
	0	x1pF	±20%
	1	x10pF	±1%
Metalised	2	x100pF	±2%	350Vdc
	3	x1nF
	4		47pF ±2% 750Vdc Metalised Mica
Foil	5			750Vdc
	6
	7
	8	x0.01pF
	9	x0.1pF		2000Vdc
	GOLD	0.1pF	±5%
	SILVER	0.01pF	±10%
			NONE ±20%

Metalised Polyester — Philips Mullard C280 — Capacitor colour code
Read colours from top to bottom — If there are less than 5 colour bands then consider two adjacent colours are the same e.g. 22nF or 330nF or 1µF 5% with 4 bands and 3.3µF 5% or 2.2µF 5% only 3 bands
Top & 2nd colour Significant figures		3rd colour Multiplier	4th colour Tolerance	5th colour Working Voltage
0	0		±20%
1	1		100nF (10x0.01µF) ±20% 400Vd.c.	100Vdc
2	2			250Vdc
3	3	x0.001µF
4	4	x0.01µF		400Vdc
5	5	x0.1µF	±5%
6	6	220nF (22x0.01µF) ±10% 400V d.c.		630Vdc
7	7
8	8
9	9		±10%	1000Vdc

Old Solid Carbon Rod Resistor colour code
Body colour 1st Significant Figure	End colour 2nd Significant Figure	Centre Dot colour Multiplier	End (Dot) colour Tolerance
0	0	x1Ω
1	1	x10Ω
2	2	x100Ω
3	3	x1kΩ	33kΩ ±10%
4	4	x10kΩ
5	5	x100kΩ
6	6	x1MΩ
7	7	47kΩ ±20%
8	8
9	9
		GOLD x0.1Ω	GOLD ±5%
		SILVER x0.01Ω	SILVER ±10%
			NONE ±20%

3 & 4 Band Carbon Composition Resistor colour code
1st colour band 1st Significant Figure	2nd colour band 2nd Significant Figure	3rd colour band Multiplier	4th colour band Tolerance
0	0	x1Ω
1	1	x10Ω	±1%
2	2	x100Ω	±2%
3	3	x1kΩ
4	4	x10kΩ	±5% see note below
5	5	x100kΩ	4.7MΩ 5%
6	6	x1MΩ
7	7	47kΩ ±10%
8	8
9	9
	330Ω ±2%	GOLD x0.1Ω	GOLD ±5%
		SILVER x0.01Ω	SILVER ±10%
			NONE ±20%
Sometimes a 5th Salmon Pink colour band is added to indicate a high stability carbon composition is used as shown above — 330Ω ±2%. This should not to be confused with modern 5 band resistors as outlined in the next table below— Philips VR series of high ohmic resistors and some others use Yellow in place of gold for tolerance — 4.7MΩ 5% above

5 & 6 Band Resistor colour code Unlike older resistors the widest band is often the last of 6 — If only 5 bands ignore last column in table
1st 3 colour bands Significant Figures	4th colour band R Multiplier	5th colour band Tolerance	6th Colour band ppm / °C
0	x1Ω
1	x10Ω	±1%	+100
2	x100Ω	±2%	+50
3	x1kΩ	68kΩ 1% 50 ppm/°C	+15
4	x10kΩ		+25
5	x100kΩ
6	x1MΩ	±0.25%	+10
7	47kΩ 1% 50 ppm/°C	±0.1%	+5
8
9			+1
	GOLD x0.1Ω	GOLD ±5%
	SILVER x0.01Ω	SILVER ±10%

Cartridge Fuse paint dot or float transfer colour code
	150mA			500mA
SALMON-PINK	50mA	VIOLET		2A
BLACK	60mA	WHITE		3A
GREY	100mA	BLACK	WHITE	5A
RED	150mA	ORANGE		7A
BROWN	250mA	ORANGE	BLACK	10A
YELLOW	500mA	ORANGE	GREY	12A
GREEN	750mA	ORANGE	GREEN	15A
BLUE	1A	ORANGE	VIOLET	20A
SKY-BLUE	1.5A	ORANGE	WHITE	25A