Fiber optic color code chart

The 12 fiber colors, and 13 to 24

The same twelve colors identify fibers inside a tube and the tubes inside a cable. Fibers 13 to 24 in one tube or unit repeat them with a black tracer. Fiber 20 is the second black, where a black tracer would not show, so TIA-598 gives it a white one and lets maker and buyer agree another color: Prysmian stripes tube 20 yellow, and its 24-fiber microduct cable and Hexatronic both use a natural, uncolored fiber with black marks as fiber 20.

On a 250 or 200 µm fiber the tracer is a ring mark or dash around the fiber, because TIA-598 does not allow lengthwise stripes on fibers of 300 µm or less. Tubes and larger buffered fibers can carry a continuous or dashed stripe. Where print replaces color, the legend is the number, the code or both: fiber 13 prints as 13, D/BL or 13-D/BL. Swatches on this page approximate the standard’s Munsell colors on screen.

Buffer tube colors, and cables with more than 12 tubes

Tube 1 is blue, tube 2 orange and so on to tube 12, aqua. Past 12, TIA-598 marks tubes the way it marks fibers past 12:

Prysmian, for example, uses the red stripe for tubes 25 to 36. A tube that holds more than 12 fibers either colors fibers 13 to 24 with the tracer, or binds the fibers into groups of 12 with colored threads or tape: Prysmian uses a blue binder for fibers 1 to 12 and an orange one for 13 to 24.

How to find any fiber

Tube = fiber number ÷ fibers per tube, rounded up
Position in the tube = fiber number − (tube − 1) × fibers per tube

In a 144-fiber cable with 12 fibers per tube, fiber 29 is in tube 3 (29 ÷ 12 = 2.4, rounded up) at position 29 − 24 = 5: the slate fiber in the green tube. A 6-fiber tube uses only the first six colors, blue to white; an 8-fiber tube runs blue to black.

Splice like color to like color so the code runs unbroken along the route. Where a cable with 12 fibers per tube meets one with 6 per tube, the colors stop lining up: fiber 7 is the red fiber in the blue tube on one side and the blue fiber in the orange tube on the other. Splice by fiber number there, and record it.

Tubes and tube colors by fiber count

A 288-fiber cable with 6 per tube needs all 48 positions; enter your cable in the fiber finder to see every tube.

Ribbon fiber color code

Ribbon cable follows the same order. In a 12-fiber ribbon the fibers run blue to aqua across the ribbon, and each ribbon counts as a unit, identified by the same color sequence or by a printed legend such as its number repeated along the ribbon. Because a ribbon’s fixed layout already identifies each fiber, TIA-598 prefers colors there but does not require them, so read the ribbon print and the datasheet.

Other color codes, and why the datasheet decides

Most manufacturers follow TIA-598, but national standards, operators and buyers set others. DIN-0888 is common in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark, S12 in Sweden and FIN2012 in Finland:

So check the cable’s datasheet or jacket print for the scheme, and for how it marks fibers 13 to 24 and position 20, before you splice. Optical fiber and outdoor cable from ZeroLine Connect come with 12-color coding to TIA-598 or to your scheme; put the scheme on your BOM. To plan the link itself, use the fiber loss calculator.

Sources

• TIA, “ANSI/TIA-598-D: Optical Fiber Cable Color Coding”, July 2014, Table 1 and clauses 3 and 4. accuristech.com
• CommScope, “Call me a limey”, on ANSI/TIA-598-D-2, the lime jacket color for OM5 indoor cable, March 2018. commscope.com
• The Fiber Optic Association, “Fiber Optic Cable And Connector Color Codes”. thefoa.org
• V. Grozdanovic, “Color Codes for Optical Fibers”, The Fiber Optic Association, 2026. thefoa.org
• Prysmian, “Color Code Guide For Fiber Optic Specifications” (TLS-0007). prysmian.com
• Hexatronic, “Color Codes and Counting Directions for Fiber Optic Cables”, white paper. hexatronic.com