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 a "Decimal Point" as it could easily not be noticed resulting in a misreading of the actual 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. 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
| Colour | Digit A | Digit B | Multiplier D | Tolerance (T) > 10pf | Tolerance (T) < 10pf | Temperature Coefficient (TC) |
| Black | 0 | 0 | x1 | ± 20% | ± 2.0pF | |
| Brown | 1 | 1 | x10 | ± 1% | ± 0.1pF | -33x10-6 |
| Red | 2 | 2 | x100 | ± 2% | ± 0.25pF | -75x10-6 |
| Orange | 3 | 3 | x1,000 | ± 3% | -150x10-6 | |
| Yellow | 4 | 4 | x10,000 | ± 4% | -220x10-6 | |
| Green | 5 | 5 | x100,000 | ± 5% | ± 0.5pF | -330x10-6 |
| Blue | 6 | 6 | x1,000,000 | -470x10-6 | ||
| Violet | 7 | 7 | -750x10-6 | |||
| Grey | 8 | 8 | x0.01 | +80%,-20% | ||
| White | 9 | 9 | x0.1 | ± 10% | ± 1.0pF | |
| Gold | x0.1 | ± 5% | ||||
| Silver | x0.01 | ± 10% |
Capacitor Voltage Colour Code Table
| Colour | Voltage Rating | ||||
| Type J | Type K | Type L | Type M | Type N | |
| Black | 4 | 100 | 10 | 10 | |
| Brown | 6 | 200 | 100 | 1.6 | |
| Red | 10 | 300 | 250 | 4 | 35 |
| Orange | 15 | 400 | 40 | ||
| Yellow | 20 | 500 | 400 | 6.3 | 6 |
| Green | 25 | 600 | 16 | 15 | |
| Blue | 35 | 700 | 630 | 20 | |
| Violet | 50 | 800 | |||
| Grey | 900 | 25 | 25 | ||
| White | 3 | 1000 | 2.5 | 3 | |
| Gold | 2000 | ||||
| Silver | |||||
