How do I know which end to read from?

Read from the end where the bands are grouped closer together. The tolerance band (gold, silver, or brown) usually sits alone at the far end, so orient the resistor with that band on the right and read left to right.

What is the difference between 4, 5, and 6 band resistors?

A 4-band resistor uses two significant-figure bands, a multiplier, and a tolerance band. A 5-band adds a third significant figure for higher precision. A 6-band adds a temperature coefficient (ppm/°C) band after the tolerance.

What do gold and silver multiplier bands mean?

Gold as a multiplier means times 0.1 and silver means times 0.01, giving sub-ohm resistances. As a tolerance band, gold means plus or minus 5 percent and silver means plus or minus 10 percent.

Why does my measured value differ from the decoded one?

Real resistors vary within their tolerance band. A 1k resistor with 5 percent tolerance can legitimately measure anywhere from 950 to 1050 ohms. Temperature and age also shift the value slightly. Use a meter to confirm critical values.

Are black bands always zero?

As a significant-figure digit, black is 0. As a multiplier, black means times 1 (10 to the power of 0). Black is never used as a tolerance band because zero tolerance is not manufacturable.

Resistor Color Code Chart

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The color bands printed on a resistor encode its resistance, tolerance, and sometimes its temperature coefficient. This chart decodes 4-band, 5-band, and 6-band resistors so you can read any resistor without memorizing the table.

How it works

Each band maps to a number using the standard color code:

Black=0  Brown=1  Red=2  Orange=3  Yellow=4
Green=5  Blue=6   Violet=7  Gray=8  White=9

For a 4-band resistor the value is:

(digit1 · 10 + digit2) × multiplier

A 5-band resistor adds a third significant digit:

(digit1 · 100 + digit2 · 10 + digit3) × multiplier

The multiplier band is 10^n for the colors above, with gold = ×0.1 and silver = ×0.01. The next band is the tolerance (e.g. brown ±1%, gold ±5%). A 6-band resistor adds a final temperature-coefficient band in ppm/°C.

Tips and example

A resistor banded brown-black-red-gold is (1·10 + 0) × 100 = 1000 Ω at ±5%, i.e. a 1 kΩ resistor.
Orient the resistor with the lone tolerance band on the right before reading.
Gold or silver in the multiplier position gives fractional-ohm resistors used in current-sensing.