Colour code of resistors:

The current method of colour code marking of resistors is the Band System.

Close to one end of the resistor are four coloured bands (there may appear to be only three, in this case the forth band is 'no colour' - see diagram below).  They are known as bands 1 - 4.  Bands 1 and 2 give the first two numbers of the resistor value, band 3 gives the multiplication factor, i.e. the number of zeros, the fourth band gives the tolerance, which indicates how close the actual value may be to the stated value.

Certain resistors remain very close to their stated value, despite temperature changes.  These are called 'high stability' resistors and this is shown by a fifth band coloured 'pink'.