WireViz colors and cable color codes

WireViz color abbreviations, hexadecimal and striped colors, all built-in cable palettes, and color display modes.

WireViz uses uppercase two-letter color codes. Concatenating codes describes a multicolored wire; quoted hexadecimal RGB strings provide custom colors. This reference follows the exact tables in WireViz 0.4.1 wv_colors.py.

Individual colors

Code	Name	Native hex color
`BK`	Black	`#000000`
`WH`	White	`#ffffff`
`GY`	Grey	`#999999`
`PK`	Pink	`#ff66cc`
`RD`	Red	`#ff0000`
`OG`	Orange	`#ff8000`
`YE`	Yellow	`#ffff00`
`OL`	Olive green	`#708000`
`GN`	Green	`#00ff00`
`TQ`	Turquoise	`#00ffff`
`LB`	Light blue	`#a0dfff`
`BU`	Blue	`#0066ff`
`VT`	Violet	`#8000ff`
`BN`	Brown	`#895956`
`BG`	Beige	`#ceb673`
`IV`	Ivory	`#f5f0d0`
`SL`	Slate	`#708090`
`CU`	Copper	`#d6775e`
`SN`	Tin	`#aaaaaa`
`SR`	Silver	`#84878c`
`GD`	Gold	`#ffcf80`

These are the library's display colors, not a colorimetric manufacturing specification. Code matching is case-sensitive: use RD, not rd. An unknown short code can produce a warning and a white fallback, so a rendered diagram is not proof that every color token was recognized.

Multicolored wires and custom RGB

cables:
  W1:
    colors: [GNYE, WHBU, RDBK, "#112233", "#FFFF00:#009900"]
    length: 1

GNYE means green/yellow; no slash or space is inserted between the two codes. With exactly two colors, the native renderer repeats the first color to form a three-band striped appearance. Three or more concatenated color codes are also supported. Hex colors are separated with a colon when more than one is needed.

Always quote a value starting with #, because an unquoted hash introduces a YAML comment. Use complete six-digit RGB values. The low-level hex parser does not fully validate every length that later translation or Graphviz rendering expects.

The color-bearing fields have different roles:

Connector color describes the body; pincolors marks individual pin rows.
Cable color describes the jacket; colors specifies conductor colors.
Cable shield can contain a color in place of true.
bgcolor fields change diagram cells or backgrounds.

Built-in cable palettes

`color_code`	Contents or purpose	Palette length
`DIN`	DIN 47100 sequence, beginning WH, BN, GN, YE, GY, PK, BU, RD, BK, VT.	60
`IEC`	BN, RD, OG, YE, GN, BU, VT, GY, WH, BK.	10
`BW`	Alternating BK and WH.	2
`TEL`	25-pair telephone sequence, ring followed by tip for each pair.	50
`TELALT`	Alternate 25-pair sequence, tip followed by ring; the first five ring wires use single minor colors.	50
`T568A`	WHGN, GN, WHOG, BU, WHBU, OG, WHBN, BN.	8
`T568B`	WHOG, OG, WHGN, BU, WHBU, GN, WHBN, BN.	8

These are color sequences. Selecting T568B does not enforce a connector pinout, create twisted-pair geometry, or certify an Ethernet cable. You still define the connections.

connectors:
  X1: {pincount: 4}
  X2: {pincount: 4}
cables:
  W1:
    wirecount: 4
    color_code: DIN
    gauge: 0.25
    length: 0.6
connections:
  - - X1: [1-4]
    - W1: [1-4]
    - X2: [1-4]

The example takes the first four DIN colors. A count longer than the palette repeats the sequence. An explicit nonempty colors list overrides color_code, and color_code alone does not establish a count. See cable count rules.

Displaying color names

Set options.color_mode to choose textual labels in native output:

Mode	Example for `RD`
`short` / `SHORT`	`rd` / `RD`
`full` / `FULL`	`red` / `RED`
`hex` / `HEX`	`#ff0000` / `#FF0000`
`ger` / `GER`	`rt` / `RT`

The default is SHORT. Mixed capitalization such as Short is not accepted. Changing the display mode does not change source color codes or connection references. Hex values that match a built-in color can be translated to that color's name; custom RGB values use a numeric fallback when a named translation is requested.