Reference
Resistor colour code
Read a resistor from its bands, or find the bands for a value. Works in both directions for 4, 5, and 6 band parts.
Direction
Tap the colours you can see on the part, in order, starting from the end furthest from the tolerance band.
Bands
2 digits, multiplier, tolerance
4.7 kΩ
±5 %, so anywhere from 4.46 kΩ to 4.93 kΩ.
Digit 1Yellow
Digit 2Violet
MultiplierRed
ToleranceGold
In ohms
4700Ω
Tolerance
±5%
Lowest
4.46 kΩ
Highest
4.93 kΩ
Nearest E24
4.7 kΩ
Nearest E96
4.75 kΩ
Note
Read from the end without the tolerance band
The tolerance band is usually gold or silver and sits slightly further from the others. Start from the opposite end. If both ends look the same, a gold or silver band tells you which end is which, because neither colour can be a digit.
Why this matters
Reading a resistor wrong costs you an afternoon. The bands are small, several of the colours are hard to tell apart under warm light, and brown, red, and orange all look the same on a dusty part. The usual failure is reading the part from the wrong end, which turns a 220 Ω into a 22 MΩ and produces a circuit that does nothing with no obvious reason why.
Assumptions and sources
- Standard IEC 60062 colour coding. A few specialist parts, particularly military and precision types, use their own schemes.
- Read from the end furthest from the tolerance band. Gold and silver can only be a multiplier or a tolerance, never a digit, so either colour tells you which end is which.
- The nearest standard values are found on a log scale, which is how the E series itself is spaced.
- Very low value resistors, under about 1 Ω, are usually marked with printed text rather than bands.