Electronics Bench Card — Resistor Codes, LED Vf & Capacitor Units
One-page bench card: resistor color code bands per IEC 60062, typical LED forward voltages, wattage ladder, and capacitance unit prefixes.
Updated August 20, 2026
The lookup tables an electronics bench never stops using, on one printable card: the full IEC 60062 resistor color code — digits, multipliers, tolerances, and 6-band temperature coefficients for all twelve band colors — typical forward voltages for the common 5 mm indicator LED chemistries, the standard resistor wattage ladder, and the capacitance unit prefixes from picofarads to farads.
Every cell is generated from the constants behind the resistor color code, LED resistor, and capacitor energy calculators — multiplier and farad columns are formatted from the exported numeric factors, never retyped. Note the 2016-edition tolerance assignments: grey is ±0.01% (orange ±0.05%, yellow ±0.02%) — older EIA-style charts print grey as 0.05%.
Electronics Bench Card — Resistor Codes, LED Vf & Capacitor Units — updated August 20, 2026
Resistor color code (IEC 60062)
| Color | Digit | Multiplier | Tolerance | Tempco (ppm/K) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black | 0 | ×1 | — | 250 |
| Brown | 1 | ×10 | ±1% | 100 |
| Red | 2 | ×100 | ±2% | 50 |
| Orange | 3 | ×1 k | ±0.05% | 15 |
| Yellow | 4 | ×10 k | ±0.02% | 25 |
| Green | 5 | ×100 k | ±0.5% | 20 |
| Blue | 6 | ×1 M | ±0.25% | 10 |
| Violet | 7 | ×10 M | ±0.1% | 5 |
| Grey | 8 | ×100 M | ±0.01% | 1 |
| White | 9 | ×1 G | — | — |
| Gold | — | ×0.1 | ±5% | — |
| Silver | — | ×0.01 | ±10% | — |
IEC 60062:2016 Table 1; — where the column does not assign the color. Tempco applies to the 6th band only.
Typical LED forward voltages
| LED type | Typical Vf (V) | Range (V) |
|---|---|---|
| Red (GaAsP/GaP) | 2.0 | 1.9–2.3 |
| Green (GaP, yellow-green) | 2.0 | 2.0–2.4 |
| Green (InGaN, pure green) | 3.3 | 3.3–4.1 |
| Blue (InGaN) | 3.3 | 3.3–4.0 |
| White (InGaN) | 3.3 | 3.3–4.0 |
Kingbright 5 mm datasheet typical-to-maximum spreads; check the datasheet for high-power parts.
Standard resistor wattages
| Rating | Watts |
|---|---|
| ⅛ W | 0.125 |
| ¼ W | 0.25 |
| ½ W | 0.5 |
| 1 W | 1 |
| 2 W | 2 |
| 3 W | 3 |
| 5 W | 5 |
| 10 W | 10 |
Pick the next rating at or above computed dissipation — with headroom (2× is the common rule).
Capacitance units
| Unit | Farads |
|---|---|
| pF | 10⁻¹² F |
| nF | 10⁻⁹ F |
| µF | 10⁻⁶ F |
| mF | 10⁻³ F |
| F | 1 F |
Exact powers of ten. Marked codes on small caps are pF: e.g. "104" = 10 × 10⁴ pF = 100 nF.
Sources
- IEC 60062:2016 Table 1 (resistor marking codes)
- Kingbright WP7113-family datasheets (5 mm indicator LED Vf)
- Standard resistor power ratings (see LED resistor calculator)
- SI capacitance prefixes (exact powers of ten)
Try the Calculators
Electronics Bench Card — Resistor Codes, LED Vf & Capacitor Units — reuven.tools/cheat-sheets/electronics-bench-card — verified against: IEC 60062:2016 Table 1 (resistor marking codes); Kingbright WP7113-family datasheets (5 mm indicator LED Vf); Standard resistor power ratings (see LED resistor calculator); SI capacitance prefixes (exact powers of ten)