Pro tool · for splicers, testers, supervisors

Fibre colour code finder

Any fibre number to its tube and colour, from 12 to 6,912 fibres, in TIA-598, DIN VDE 0888, S12, FIN 2012 or Type E. Or tap the colours you see and find out which code the cable follows.

Your cable

Colour standardUK and European data centres built to TIA or ISO/IEC 11801, US, Middle East, most hyperscale. Not sure? Use “Which code is this?”.

Fibre count

Construction

Fibres per tube

Tube colours

TIA-598144F · 12 tubes of 12

Fibre number

Tube 12

Aqua

Fibre 5 in the tube

Slate

The whole tube 12

Fibre 137 of 144 (TIA-598, 12 per tube) · tube 12 Aqua · fibre 5 Slate

How it works

Rules and tables you can check.

A table for every position
Positions 1 to 24 come from explicit tables, not a formula. Black's tracer, the 16-fibre MPO set and the European 13 to 24 marks are where a formula goes wrong.
Honest about maker marks
Past 12 tubes, makers use stripes, dashes or rings. The colour is shown; the mark gets a question mark and a note to check the datasheet.
Reverse it
Tube orange, fibre slate? That is fibre 17 in a 12-per-tube cable. Tap what you see and it gives you the number.
Offshore and foreign cables
Tap the first three colours. If it is not TIA, the tool tells you which European code it is, and how many colours you need to be sure.

Straight answers

What engineers ask.

What colour is fibre 137 in a 144-fibre cable?

In a TIA-598 cable with 12 fibres per tube, fibre 137 is in tube 12 (aqua), position 5 (slate). In a DIN VDE 0888 cable with the same build it is tube 12 (pink), position 5 (white). With 24 fibres per tube under TIA it is tube 6 (white), position 17: slate with a black tracer.

What is the fibre optic colour code order?

TIA-598: blue, orange, green, brown, slate, white, red, black, yellow, violet, rose, aqua. Fibres 13 to 24 repeat the colours with a black tracer, and black gets a yellow one. DIN VDE 0888 starts red, green, blue, yellow, white, grey, brown, violet, turquoise, black, orange, pink.

How are tubes numbered past 12?

Tubes 13 to 24 usually repeat the 12 colours with a black stripe (black gets a yellow stripe); 25 to 36 an orange stripe; 37 to 48 a green stripe. Makers vary, so check the cable datasheet before splicing the second group.

Is there a UK or Openreach colour code?

Most UK data-centre and enterprise cable follows TIA-598. Operator and outside-plant cables can follow a maker's or operator's own scheme; we have not found a published Openreach code to confirm, so use the cable datasheet for those.

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