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Value to colour code
Resistance in ohms
Band count
Tolerance
%
Band colours yellow · violet · red · gold
4700 Ω as a 4 band code
Digit bands yellow · violet
Multiplier band red
Tolerance band gold
Value it encodes 4.7 kΩ
Exact value 4,700 Ω
Value in · bands out
The colour code
| Colour | Digit | Multiplier | Tolerance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | ±0.25% |
| Violet | 7 | ×10M | ±0.1% |
| Grey | 8 | ×100M | ±0.05% |
| White | 9 | ×1G | — |
| Gold | — | ×0.1 | ±5% |
| Silver | — | ×0.01 | ±10% |
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320 × 100
A 4.7 kΩ 5% resistor is yellow, violet, red, gold. The first two colours are the digits 4 and 7, red multiplies by 100, and gold marks ±5%. Enter any value to get its band sequence.
How to find the bands for a value
1 Enter the resistance in ohms — 4700 rather than 4k7.
2 Choose four or five bands.
3 Set the tolerance you want.
4 Read the colour sequence, left to right.
This direction is the useful one when you are picking a part out of a tray rather than identifying one already in hand. It is also the faster way to spot a mistake: knowing that 220 Ω should be red-red-brown makes an incorrectly stuffed board obvious at a glance, without a meter. Note that not every value has a valid code — a four-band part cannot express 4.99 kΩ, and the tool will round to what two digits allow.
Questions
Yellow, violet, red, then gold for 5% tolerance.
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300 × 250
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INTERNAL SIGNAL ONLY · WE USE IT TO FIND TOOLS WORTH REBUILDING