Capacitor Colour Codes – Page 1
Generally, the actual values of Capacitance, Voltage or Tolerance are marked onto the
body of the capacitors in the form of alphanumeric characters. However, when the value of
the capacitance is of a decimal value problems arise with the marking of the “Decimal
Point” as it could easily not be noticed resulting in a misreading of the actual capacitance
value. Instead letters such as p (pico) or n (nano) are used in place of the decimal point to
identify its position and the weight of the number.
For example, a capacitor can be labelled as, n47 = 0.47nF, 4n7 = 4.7nF or 47n = 47nF and
so on. Also, sometimes capacitors are marked with the capital letter K to signify a value of
one thousand pico-Farads, so for example, a capacitor with the markings of 100K would
be 100 x 1000pF or 100nF.
To reduce the confusion regarding letters, numbers and decimal points, an International
colour coding scheme was developed many years ago as a simple way of identifying
capacitor values and tolerances. It consists of coloured bands (in spectral order) known
commonly as the Capacitor Colour Code system and whose meanings are illustrated
below:
Capacitor Colour Code Table
Band
Colour
Digit
A
Digit
B
Multiplier
D
Tolerance
(T) >10pf
Tolerance
(T) 10pf
Temperature
Coefficient
(TC)
Black 0 0 x1 ± 20% ± 2.0pF NPO
Brown 1 1 x10 ± 1% ± 0.1pF -33×10-6
Red 2 2 x100 ± 2% ± 0.25pF -75×10-6
Orange 3 3 x1,000 ± 3% -150×10-6
Yellow 4 4 x10,000 ± 4% -220×10-6
Green 5 5 x100,000 ± 5% ± 0.5pF -330×10-6
Blue 6 6 x1,000,000 -470×10-6
Violet 7 7 -750×10-6
Grey 8 8 x0.01 +80%,-20% +30 x 10-6
White 9 9 x0.1 ± 10% ± 1.0pF +500 to -330 x 10-6
Gold x0.1 ± 5% +100 x10-6
Silver x0.01 ± 10%
