Color-coded ribbon cables, also known as rainbow ribbon cables or twisted flats, use repeated color patterns as conductor identification. This mode usually uses industry standard resistance color codes, where brown will be used for conductors and pins 1, 11, and 21, and red will be used for conductors and pins 2, 12, and 22. Color-coded ribbon cables can be composed of insulated wires pulled up parallel to each other, or they can be made of twisted pairs, with a repeating flat section at a specific length interval for terminal use.
Edge-marked cables are usually marked with a stripe on the first conductor connected to pin 1 on the connector. The edge markings can be any color, but are usually based on the spacing of the cables or the center spacing. For example, 0.050" pitch cable is a typical red edge marking. This identification method is suitable for cables composed of two or more IDC connectors, each connector is connected to each wire, but when a single wire or group of wires must be divided It is not very useful when the termination is initiated. In this case, there will be additional markings applied to the designated conductors to allow correct identification and termination.