Fiber Optic Color Code
TIA-598-C Reference Tool

Look up tube and fiber colors for any cable count, or find a fiber number by color combination. Based on the ANSI/TIA-598-C standard for fiber optic cable color coding.

🔴 TIA-598-C Standard 🔴 12 to 288-Fiber Cables 🔴 Forward & Reverse Lookup 🔴 Free & No Login

🌈 Cable Color Code Lookup

Select a cable count to see every tube and fiber labeled with its TIA-598-C color

Cable fiber count

Buffer tube style

🔍 Find Fiber by Color

Select a tube color and fiber color to identify the fiber number

Tube color

Fiber color

📚 Quick Reference — TIA-598-C Color Order

Position	Color	Swatch	Hex	Notes

📚 About TIA-598-C

ANSI/TIA-598-C is the industry standard that defines color coding for optical fiber, buffer tubes, and fiber optic cables. It ensures consistent fiber identification across manufacturers and installations.

The standard defines a 12-color sequence that cycles through tubes and repeats for fibers within each tube, allowing unique identification of every fiber in cables up to 288 fibers and beyond.

🔧 How the color code works

12 base colors define the sequence — blue through aqua
Each buffer tube is numbered and color-coded in sequence
Fibers within each tube repeat the same 12-color cycle
Tubes 13–24 (288-fiber cables) use a black tracer stripe to distinguish them from tubes 1–12
Loose-buffer cables assign one fiber per tube, with the tube color identifying the fiber

📌 12-fiber tube cables

Standard cable construction groups 12 fibers into each buffer tube. A 24-fiber cable has 2 tubes, a 48-fiber cable has 4 tubes, and so on up to 24 tubes in a 288-fiber cable.

To identify any fiber: locate the tube number (tube color), then count the fiber position within that tube (fiber color).

📌 Loose-buffer / breakout cables

Loose-buffer and breakout cables place one fiber per tube. Each buffer tube is color-coded in the TIA-598-C sequence, making the tube color directly the fiber color/number.

This construction is common in premises and short-run applications where individual fiber routing is needed.

Worked example: finding fiber 47 in a 144-fiber cable

A 144-fiber cable has 12 buffer tubes of 12 fibers each. To find fiber 47:

Every 12 fibers is one tube: fibers 1–12 are tube 1, 13–24 are tube 2, 25–36 are tube 3, 37–48 are tube 4. Fiber 47 falls in the 37–48 range, so it's in tube 4 — the 4th color in the TIA-598-C sequence is brown.
Within tube 4 (which starts at fiber 37), fiber 47 is the 47−36 = 11th fiber in that tube. Position 11 in the 12-color sequence is rose. So fiber 47 is the rose fiber inside the brown tube.

This is exactly the arithmetic the forward-lookup tool above automates — type in 47, get tube and fiber color instantly instead of counting by hand on a splice tray.

Frequently asked questions

Is the 12-color sequence the same for every manufacturer?
TIA-598-C standardizes the sequence (blue, orange, green, brown, slate, white, red, black, yellow, violet, rose, aqua), and the overwhelming majority of North American cable manufacturers follow it. A small number of older or international cables may use a different scheme — always visually confirm against the cable's spec sheet on a first splice if you're unsure.

Why does tube 13 need a black tracer stripe?
The 12-color sequence only has 12 distinct colors, so a cable with more than 12 tubes (144+ fiber cables with loose tubes, or 288-fiber cables) has to reuse colors starting at tube 13. The black tracer stripe on tubes 13–24 is how you tell "tube 1, blue" apart from "tube 13, blue" at a glance.

Does ribbon fiber use the same color code?
Ribbon cable identifies individual fibers by their position within the ribbon (usually printed or color-coded per-fiber within a 12-fiber ribbon using the same base sequence) rather than by buffer tube, since ribbons don't have individual loose tubes the way this tool's tube/fiber model assumes. This tool is built for loose-tube and tight-buffer constructions, not mass-fusion ribbon splicing.