# Resistor Color Code

The electronic color code is used to identify the values and tolerances of resistors. They generally consist of multiples band on a resistor. There is a 4, 5 and 6 band color code for resistors. The 4 and 5 band color code are generally the one you gonna see the most. The 6 band color code is much more rare. The 5 band color code has one more digits than the 4 band color code and it is used for more precise values. The 6 band color code has an additional band for the temperature coefficient and this is why the 6 band color code is more rare. They are some exceptions in the resistor color code. For example, a 0 Ohm resistor only have one black band.

##### 4 Band Resistor Color Code

To read a 4 band resistor color code, you need the chart above to know exactly what every color and band positions means.

Example :

For a 470 ohms resistors with a tolerance of 10% : the first band would be the first digit (4) which is yellow and the second band is the second digit (7) which is violet. We currently have a value of 47 and the third band is the multiplier. We need to multiply 47 by 10Ω to get 470Ω. The 4th band is the tolerance and would be silver for a tolerance of 10%. Figure 1 is an illustration of how these bands would be arrange on a real resistor.

$47*10\Omega=470\Omega$

##### 5 Band Resistor Color Code

To read a 5 band resistor color code, you need the chart above to know exactly what every color and band positions means.

Example :

For a 499 ohms resistors with a tolerance of 1% : the first band would be the first digit (4) which is yellow, the second band is the second digit (9) which is white and the third band would be the third digit (9) which is white. We currently have a value of 499 and the fourth band is the multiplier. We need to multiply 499 by 1Ω (black) to get 499Ω. The 5th band is the tolerance and would be brown for a tolerance of 1%. Figure 3 is an illustration of how these bands would be arrange on a real resistor.

$499*1\Omega=499\Omega$