What are the standard abbreviations for colors in electronics? IE. R = RED.

[gre...@concentric.net]

In <3246aef5....@nntp.ix.netcom.com>, rhef...@ix.netcom.com (roger) writes:
>
Lets see, I believe:
BK = Black
BL = BLue
R = RED
OR = Orange
YL = Yellow
VI = Viloet ??
BR = Brown
GR = Green
GY = Grey
Wh = White

These may not be 100% correct So somone correct me if they see
a mistake.

[Jack Yazel]

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

[J. Zeigler]

These are the standard colors to represent numbers, not what the
question asked unfortunately.

[Gary Morris]

I don't know how "official" the following list is, but these are the
abbreviations I have most often seen:

Black BLK 0 Green GRN 5
Brown BRN 1 Blue BLU 6
Red RED 2 Violet VIO 7
Orange ORG 3 Gray GRY 8
Yellow YEL 4 White WHT 9

I don't recall that I've seen "Gold" or "Silver" abbreviated.
--
Gary Morris
gmo...@gv.net

[Robert Ogburn]

yup!, Often the abbreviation SL (for slate) is used for grey...

[Scott G. Hall]

Gary Morris <gmo...@gv.net> wrote:
>J. Zeigler wrote:
>> Jack Yazel wrote:
>> >
>> > 0 = Black
>> > 1 = Brown
>> > 2 = Red
>> > 3 = Orange
>> > 4 = Yellow
>> > 5 = Green
>> > 6 = Blue
>> > 7 = Violet
>> > 8 = Grey
>> > 9 = White
>

>I don't know how "official" the following list is, but these are the
>abbreviations I have most often seen:
>
>Black BLK 0 Green GRN 5
>Brown BRN 1 Blue BLU 6
>Red RED 2 Violet VIO 7
>Orange ORG 3 Gray GRY 8
>Yellow YEL 4 White WHT 9
>
>I don't recall that I've seen "Gold" or "Silver" abbreviated.

Actually, a good resource for this is the old "Belden Wire" catalogs of the
late seventies, and the old GC catalogs of the same era, which gives the
old Bell Telephone color abbreviations, among other things. My old reference
says this for components:

Name Abbr X XX #
------ ---- - -- -
Black Blk K Bk 0
Brown Brn N Bn 1
Red Red R R 2
Orange Org O O 3
Yellow Yel Y Y 4
Green Grn G Gn 5
Blue Blu U Bu 6
Purple/Violet Vio V V 7
Grey/Slate Sla S Sl 8
White Wht W W 9
Gold Gld - Gd -
Silver Sil - Si -

And the following for telephone wires:

Pair # Colors Abbr
------ ------ ----
1 Wht/Blu W/Bu
2 Wht/Org W/O
3 Wht/Grn W/G
4 Wht/Brn W/Bn
5 Wht/Sla W/S
6 Red/Blu R/Bu
7 Red/Org R/O
8 Red/Grn R/G
9 Red/Brn R/Bn
10 Red/Sla R/S
11 Blk/Blu Bk/Bu
12 Blk/Org Bk/O
13 Blk/Grn Bk/G
14 Blk/Brn Bk/Bn
15 Blk/Sla Bk/S
16 Yel/Blu Y/Bu
17 Yel/Org Y/O
18 Yel/Grn Y/G
19 Yel/Brn Y/Bn
20 Yel/Sla Y/S
21 Vio/Blu V/Bu
22 Vio/Org V/O
23 Vio/Grn V/G
24 Vio/Brn V/Bn
25 Vio/Sla V/S

(Audio pairs are different)
As you can see, the abbreviations (whether 3-letter, 1-or-2-letter, or
single letter) are chosen as to avoid any abiguity which color is meant.

--
"It was our last, best hope for peace -- it failed. | Scott G. Hall
Now it's our last best hope." (Babylon-5 opener) | Lucent Technologies
----------------------------------------------------------| Bell Labs - BCS
Scott...@bell-labs.com s...@cbgbcs.cb.lucent.com | Columbus, OH, USA

[mudb...@idt.net]

On 14 Oct 1996 20:45:03 GMT, s...@banshee.cb.lucent.com (Scott G. Hall)
wrote:

>Gary Morris <gmo...@gv.net> wrote:
>>J. Zeigler wrote:
>>> Jack Yazel wrote:
>>> >
>>> > 0 = Black
>>> > 1 = Brown
>>> > 2 = Red
>>> > 3 = Orange
>>> > 4 = Yellow
>>> > 5 = Green
>>> > 6 = Blue
>>> > 7 = Violet
>>> > 8 = Grey
>>> > 9 = White
>>

The way the standard colors were taught to me back in Aviation
Electrical Military school (1985) (this pertains to resistors) was:

Black (Black) 0
Boys (Brown) 1
Rape (Red) 2
Our (Orange) 3
Young (Yellow) 4
Girls (Green) 5
But (Blue) 6
Violet (Violet) 7
Gives (Gray) 8
Willingly (White) 9

Get (Gold) 5%
Some (Silver) 10%
Now (No Color) 20%

Albeit, far from politically correct, but easy to remember
nonetheless.

JJ

[Tim Wescott]

On Tue, 02 Feb 2016 01:31:33 -0800, marc.verwillegen wrote:

> On Tuesday, October 1, 1996 at 9:00:00 AM UTC+2, gre...@concentric.net

> http://industries.ul.com/plastics-and-components/plastics/color-codes-
and-abbreviations

OK, it's a reply to a post that's nearly 20 years old -- is anyone
keeping track? I'm pretty sure this is the current winner.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

[Michael Black]

Here, or anywhere?

I'm sure I've seen replies to earlier posts elsewhere.

Michael

[Tim Wescott]

Here. I'm sure there's older out there.

[ehsjr]

Most likely, a defective flux capacitor caused that.

Ed

[Tom Biasi]

More likely defective Google groups.

[Tim Wescott]

Or it's a perfectly good flux capacitor that got misused because someone
misread the color code.



--
www.wescottdesign.com

[wayl...@gmail.com]

Nearly twenty years and still page one in search. Nice.

[rus...@machmotion.com]

COLOR 2-PLACE 3-PLACE

CLEAR CL CLR

BLACK BK BLK

BROWN BN BRN

RED RD RED

ORANGE OR ORN

YELLOW YE YEL

GREEN GN GRN

BLUE BU BLU

VIOLET VI VIO

GREY GY GRY

WHITE WT WHT

PINK PK PNK

TAN TN TAN

[default]

On Fri, 9 Jun 2017 16:54:00 -0700 (PDT), rus...@machmotion.com wrote:

Underwriters lab:
http://industries.ul.com/plastics-and-components/plastics/color-codes-and-abbreviations

Abbreviation Color
AL Aluminum
ALL Any color
AM Amber
AO All opaque
AT All transparent
BG Beige
BK Black
BL Blue
BN Brown
BZ Bronze
CH Charcoal
CL Clear
CT Clear transparent
DK Dark
GD Gold
GN Green
GY Gray
GT Granite
IV Ivory
LT Light
NC Natural (no pigmentation)
OL Olive
OP Opaque
OR Orange
PK Pink
RD Red
SM Smoke
TL Translucent
TN Tan
TP Transparent
VT Violet
WT White
YL Yellow

[John King]

I guess a lot changed between 1975 and 1981. In my 1975 US Navy BEE school they gave us the cheat sheet below. This chart pertains to any number of color coded electronics, not only resistors, but also computer cards like those found in the UNIVAC 1219. My classmates were of all nationalities and races. We had Israelis, Iranians and Kenyans in out classes all together.
Anyone remember the transistor theory BECky VOPINI AZAZA chart? You can draw it in your mind.

0 = BLK > Bad
1 = BRN > Boys
2 = RED > Race
3 = ORN > Our
4 = YEL > Young
5 = GRN > Girls
6 = BLU > Behind
7 = VIO > Victory
8 = GRY > Garden
9 = WHT > Walls

Gold, Silver, and None were pretty obvious, who needs a cheat for that?

[Ralph Mowery]

In article <f9d9f2e1-11f5-4ab7...@googlegroups.com>,
kingj...@gmail.com says...

Guess it depends on where you learned it. I heard it the first way back
around 1965. Before that I knew the colors for the resistors and could
just look at one and tell what it was for most of them. Did not have to
even think of what number each color was.

[Tom Biasi]

I don't think there is a standard. One tries to avoid ambiguous
abbreviations like Bl for blue and black.

[Phil Hobbs]

Tom Biasi wrote:
> On 8/16/2021 1:40 PM, John King wrote:
>> On Wednesday, October 16, 1996 at 3:00:00 AM UTC-4, mudb...@idt.net
>> wrote:
>>> On 14 Oct 1996 20:45:03 GMT, s...@banshee.cb.lucent.com (Scott G. Hall)
>>> wrote:
>>>> Gary Morris <gmo...@gv.net> wrote:
>>>>> J. Zeigler wrote:
>>>>>> Jack Yazel wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> 0 = Black
>>>>>>> 1 = Brown
>>>>>>> 2 = Red
>>>>>>> 3 = Orange
>>>>>>> 4 = Yellow
>>>>>>> 5 = Green
>>>>>>> 6 = Blue
>>>>>>> 7 = Violet
>>>>>>> 8 = Grey
>>>>>>> 9 = White

<snip>

>>
> I don't think there is a standard. One tries to avoid ambiguous
> abbreviations like Bl for blue and black.

The version I learned about 1969 is actually suitable for mixed company
and as a bonus it's closer to the truth:

Better Be Right Or Your Great Big Venture Goes West.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

[Tom Biasi]

I know several. But the OP wasn't asking about color code, he was asking
about color abbreviations. R for Red; G for Green etc.

[Phil Hobbs]

> I know several. But the OP wasn't asking about color code, he was asking
> about color abbreviations. R for Red; G for Green etc.

(feigns shock) *Oh no!* I've been engaging in thread drift! Horrors!
(recovers composure)

BITD usually BLK BRN RED ORG YEL GRN BLU VIO GRY WHT.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs
Principal Consultant
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510

http://electrooptical.net
http://hobbs-eo.com