Phone wire color codes

An easy to understand explanation of the codes is also available

Developed in the early 1940s, (see note at bottom) this color code uses only 10 colors divided into 5 group colors and 5 pair colors.
	Tip +	Ring -
1st group White
blue			1st pair

orange			2nd pair

green			3rd pair

brown			4th pair

slate			5th pair

2nd group Red
blue			6th pair

orange			7th pair

green			8th pair

brown			9th pair

slate			10th pair

3rd group Black
blue			11th pair

orange			12th pair

green			13th pair

brown			14th pair

slate			15th pair

4th group Yellow
blue			16th pair

orange			17th pair

green			18th pair

brown			19th pair

slate			20th pair

5th group Violet
blue			21st pair

orange			22nd pair

green			23rd pair

brown			24th pair

slate			25th pair

This solid color code actually goes up to 25 pair, however, the colors will frequently vary from one manufacturer to another on pairs beyond white-blue

Old Color Code
	Tip +	Ring -
green			red

black			yellow

white			blue

brown			orange

pink			gray

Ethernet Color Codes
Click for enlargement


Pin	Fnctn	Pair	type A*	type B*

1	TX+	2

2	TX-	2

3	RX+	3

4		1

5		1

6	RX-	3

7		4

8		4

Function refers to NIC (network card) pins
* It doesn't matter whether you use type A or B but to avoid confusion you should use the same type throughout your network

Category 3, category 5, what's the difference?
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International color coding for UL-/CSA-Control Cable
1 black 2 brown 3 red 4 orange 5 yellow	6 green 7 blue 8 violet 9 grey 10 white

(Note)
Jim Stettler wrote me in November of 2001 with the following comments. Thanks Jim.

"I used to have a telephone manuel from the late 30's-early 40's that had the standard (current) Color code. The determining factor for using the colors that they did, had to do with the ease of identification along with the availability of dyes for cloth cordage. IE they wanted cheap easy to use dyes that were easy to identify." .