When you pull a vintage tubular ceramic, dipped mica, or axial film capacitor from a parts bin, the painted bands are your only roadmap to its capacitance and voltage rating. Unlike modern surface-mount or radial electrolytics that print their values directly, older and specialized axial components rely on the standard 5-band capacitor color code. Here is the exact translation matrix.
The Standard Capacitor Color Code Chart (EIA / IEC 60062)
The table below consolidates the harmonized EIA-RS-315 and IEC 60062 standards. Read the bands from left to right (or from the end closest to the lead wire if there is a spacing gap). For 4-band ceramic discs, ignore the Voltage column. For 5-band tubulars, the final band dictates the DC working voltage.
| Color | Band 1 (Digit 1) | Band 2 (Digit 2) | Band 3 (Multiplier in pF) | Band 4 (Tolerance) | Band 5 (Tubular VDC) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black | 0 | 0 | 1 | ±20% | 10V |
| Brown | 1 | 1 | 10 | ±1% | 100V |
| Red | 2 | 2 | 100 | ±2% | 250V |
| Orange | 3 | 3 | 1,000 (1nF) | - | 40V |
| Yellow | 4 | 4 | 10,000 (10nF) | - | 400V |
| Green | 5 | 5 | 100,000 (100nF) | ±5% | 16V |
| Blue | 6 | 6 | - | ±0.5% | 630V |
| Violet | 7 | 7 | - | ±0.25% | - |
| Gray | 8 | 8 | - | - | - |
| White | 9 | 9 | - | ±10% | 2.5V |
| Gold | - | - | 0.1 | - | 2000V |
| Silver | - | - | 0.01 | - | - |
Decoding the Bands: What Each Row Means in Practice
While modern components use alphanumeric printing (like '104K' for 100,000pF ±10%), the electronic color code relies on positional context. A color's meaning changes entirely depending on which band it occupies.
The 4-Band System (Ceramic Discs & Dipped Mica)
The first two bands are always significant digits. The third band is the multiplier in picofarads (pF). The fourth band is tolerance.
Worked Example: You have a ceramic disc with Brown, Black, Red, Silver bands.
- Band 1 (Brown): 1
- Band 2 (Black): 0
- Band 3 (Red): ×100 pF
- Band 4 (Silver): In some legacy 4-band systems, silver denotes ±10% tolerance (though white is standard for 10% in IEC 60062; always check the manufacturer datasheet if silver appears in the tolerance position).
Calculation: 10 × 100 pF = 1,000 pF. This converts to 1 nF (or 0.001 µF) with a ±10% tolerance.
The 5-Band System (Tubular & Axial Film)
Tubular capacitors add a fifth band to indicate the maximum DC working voltage. This is critical because a 100nF capacitor rated for 16V (Green band 5) will catastrophically fail if placed in a 400V tube amplifier circuit where a Yellow band 5 is required. For deeper component theory, electronics-tutorials.ws provides excellent foundational reading on dielectric breakdown limits.
Rows People Get Wrong & Faded Marking Workarounds
Even experienced bench technicians misread capacitor bands. Here are the most common traps and how to handle degraded components.
The 'Rows People Get Wrong' Notes
- Gold and Silver as Multipliers vs. Tolerance: In resistors, gold and silver are strictly tolerance or decimal multipliers. In capacitors, Gold (0.1) and Silver (0.01) can act as multipliers in the third band position to indicate sub-picofarad values (e.g., 22 × 0.1 = 2.2pF). If you see gold in the third position, do not read it as a 5% tolerance marker.
- Black Tolerance vs. Black Digit: Black is '0' in the digit columns, but it means ±20% in the tolerance column. If a capacitor has a wide black band at the very end, it is a tolerance marker, not a zero.
- Orange and Yellow Missing from Tolerance: Notice that Orange (3) and Yellow (4) have no tolerance assignment in the standard. If you see these colors, they are always digits or multipliers, never tolerance.
Safe Interpretation When Markings are Faded or Missing
Vintage capacitors (especially from the 1960s and 70s) suffer from dye migration, heat fading, and conformal coating obscuration. If you cannot confidently read the third band, do not guess. Installing a 10pF capacitor in a 100nF coupling position will destroy your audio frequency response or cause a DC bias fault in a transistor stage.
The Fix: Desolder one leg of the component to lift it out of the circuit's parallel network. Measure it using a dedicated LCR meter (like the DER EE DE-5000 or a benchtop Keysight U1733C) set to the 120Hz test frequency for electrolytics/film, or 1kHz/10kHz for small ceramics and micas. If the measured capacitance drifts more than 20% from its suspected nominal value, or if the Dissipation Factor (D) / Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR) is high, the dielectric has degraded and the part must be binned.
Regional Variants and Legacy Military Specs
While the IEC 60062 standard has largely unified global component marking, you will encounter regional and military anomalies when repairing legacy equipment.
| Standard / Region | Application Era | Key Deviations from Standard Chart |
|---|---|---|
| EIA RS-315 (US) | 1950s - 1990s | Often used Silver for ±10% tolerance instead of White. Body color (the background epoxy or ceramic) sometimes denoted the temperature coefficient (e.g., NPO/C0G vs X7R). |
| IEC 60062 (Global/EU) | 1980s - Present | Strict adherence to the chart above. White is definitively ±10%. Harmonized globally for modern axial film and tubular ceramics. |
| MIL-SPEC (MIL-C-11272) | 1940s - 1980s (US Military) | Features a wide first band indicating the military specification category, followed by standard EIA color bands. The wide band is not a digit; it is a classification marker. |
| BS 1852 (Old UK) | 1950s - 1970s (British) | Primarily a resistor standard, but occasionally applied to British-manufactured mica capacitors. Used a letter-code suffix rather than a 5th color band for voltage. |
When restoring vintage military radios or early solid-state amplifiers, always cross-reference the component's physical shape and lead dressing against the era-specific MIL-SPEC or EIA manuals. If a tubular capacitor features a wide black band at the lead end followed by standard colors, treat the wide band as a MIL-SPEC identifier and start your digit decoding from the second band.
